How can I improve my intelligence?

1) Exercize

2) Healthy diet (low weight, appropriate vitamins preferably from foods, etc.)

3) Sleep well - 6.30 hours seem to be the sweet spot, some need a little more (the recent "8 hours or bust" is mostly bogus pseudo-science, which even if peddled by an actual scientist, is not backed up properly, since the data show otherwise).

- All three of the above boost congnitive skills, alertness, memory, etc, more than anything else. If you have some medical issues affecting the above (e.g. some condition), seek help, and treat them as well. E.g. you might need pills to focus. But take care of the above big 3 as a priority.

4) Read a lot. Mostly books.

On fields outside technical/science (where newer is better), try to read a healthy chunk of old ones too.

On scientific fields, read newer stuff, but also some of the classics (e.g. for IT, something like "The Mythical Man-Month").

For the fields you're interested in, don't go for summaries and lazy recaps, go to the sources. Cliff Notes helps you repeat the same talking points as anybody else. Reading the original material helps you form your own perspective (and, if the material is art, it's also a totally deeper experience). Shed the common tech/nerd prejudice that History, Literature, or Philosophy "don't matter".

5) Talk to people. All kinds of people. You don't only learn and get insights from Feynman or Buffet types, but also from a retired pilot, a plumber, a cook, a single mother of two, whatever. Some wont be insights about technical developments or scientific techniques, but will nonetheless be insights into human society, feelings, how the other half lives, and so on.

6) Don't try to master everything. Focus on 1-2 things, and try to get a general knowledge of others. Get personal experience with things you care about, not just theoritical.

7) Stress less. Excess stress (over things one should not stress about, rather than actual heavy problems of the moment) can kill cognitive ability.

8) Don't trust random eight point lists from random idiots on the internet. They could be right, but how would you know?

Acuity can be improved with more work on focus.

Memory can be improved with exercise and various aids, some of which help you pack more into working memory, while others get your data to be close at hand.

I submit your intelligence is what it is.

What this all comes down to is work. While there may be a ceiling for all of us, defined by inability to grok no matter how much work is done, the fact is below that point work has real, tangible benefits.

You can improve your wisdom dramatically too. Processing either your own experience, or that which others share, can give you seriously potent mental tools, rules of thumb, contexts to reason with.

Think of wisdom like you do tools. It is a labor output multiplier. In our youth, we are rarely wise, but we also are white hot nimble. When we are old, we have a body of experience to draw on.

Wise people make more with fewer moves, generally see lower risks and costs and can often gain the benefit of time. That is time for the work needed to be relevant, vital.

All these things combined can really add up. I have changed careers a few times and take these things very seriously each time.

It pays off.

Whatever intelligence we have is likely to be enough, unless our goals are severely misaligned with our basic nature. In my experience, this is rare given one gets to hard work and sets clear priorities.

And that is the last thing. We lose a little of that youthful nimble mind as we age. It does not go away, but it does require priority to manifest and serve the function you need it for.

When you perform these works, make them count. Be present and give yourself time to play, explore, shake off inhibition.

Trust you will get there.

Eat well, sleep well, stay or become physically active, and try something new every day.

Don't compare yourself to others. Rather, set goals for yourself that work best for you.

But do keep learning and drawing inspiration from others. We are not meant to be islands unto ourselves.

Challenge your mind with books and articles that may run counter to your ingrained beliefs. Sit down and have a game of chess with someone who is the opposite of you on issues of the day.

Get out in nature, take regular walks through the local park, cemetery, etc. There's evidence that this has therapeutic effects on the brain and body.

Grow a garden, get your fingers in the dirt, eat your own homegrown produce.

Shake it up and do something totally new and different: African drumming, Asian cooking, 3D printing (my new hobby).

> people younger than me that just blow me away with their smarts

(sidenote: are you sure it's really "smarts"? Many people (younger and older) just have a combination of superficial knowledge with good salesperson skills. It creates the illusion of an expert)

Personally, I think it comes down to an ability to focus. I don't think there's a problem so impenetrable that time and focus can't crack.

The problem is (again, IMO) that today's society rewards quick feedback. I find myself in a disadvantage as I need quite a lot of time to sit down, break the problem down and reflect on it. I'll give an example on how this is unfair: school system exams. Everyone gets the same time, even though some will get there eventually if only given more time.

So perhaps the problem is not you, and your natural thinking rhythm.

Personally, I think "intelligence" means different things to different people. Some people are intelligent in their specific domain because they spend a lot of time working in that domain. Others are generalists, they know a little bit about a lot of things. To me, both are intelligent in their own right.

This article had a huge impact on me: The T-Shaped Information Diet - https://junglegym.substack.com/p/the-t-shaped-information-di....

Here's the basic idea:

> The T-shaped talent model suggests that the best way to grow your abilities is to build a shallow understanding across a breadth of domains and a depth of expertise in whichever domain is most relevant to your profession.

1) Realizing how little you know is the beginning of wisdom.

2) Surround yourself with those smarter than yourself.

You're doing fine!

Human-level intelligence, so far, is something miraculous. Your specific "intelligence" is fixed, but without the fundamentals (sleep, diet, exercise etc), you cannot know how much that is... Your learning, practice, experience, curiosity, playfulness, discovery and invention compounds day by day, building on itself, increasing your "apparent intelligence".

Follow your interest (you may need to push yourself at first), and you can become expert in something, and impress others as they have impressed you. Even better, you can guide them as they have guided you. OTOH

  If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be smarter and dumber persons than yourself.

I can relate to your position, especially now due to illness it is becoming harder for me to even get to a normal level of thinking. My observations with this struggle;

I think what you should focus on is making progress for your own sake; * overall it's about consciously (re)exposing yourself to intellectual inspiration, and making to effort to ingrain it. (meaning, next time around you have more tools to reason and express) *

1) throw out absolutism, completism, perfectionism, focus on 'good enough model / summary' that you repeat or relate to others

2) apply models of repetition as explained in things like 'learning how to learn', and 'the power of habits' (etc) to your reading, processing and decision making. Include reasoning, wisdom, and not just knowledge.

3) takeaways from any source can be on topic, form, style etc. You can learn a way of phrasing from one context that helps you convey your argument in another. (have fun with it)

4) reflect on experiences where you were in peak form. Your goal is to get to this more often, en recognize the path.

5) Try to make a manifesto or main collection of powerful ideas that should guide you. you can alter it along the way, strengthen it with references etc. just make sure you do the work of revisiting and culling. This is your externalized intellectual memory.

- bonus: take your pick of philosophical, spiritual, psychological texts and find some golden nuggets about how to appreciate yourself and deal with our sometimes negative instincts.

I'm not sure if you're looking for more intelligence here, but more learning ... a different thing. That can be fed by opening-wide your curiosity, and constantly feeding it with new things. Youtube is great for that, so are books that genuinely interest you and motivate you to learn more. Always take time to recall what you've experienced and remember the details.

But supposing you do mean intelligence, then: First you need to take good care of your 'machine'. Enough rest, good diet, enough exercise, avoid aggravating things and people. There will be days it's not working; learn to recognize them; don't struggle, get some chores done.

After that: there are many kinds of intelligence. Get that list, pick the one you want to work on.

One example: creative intelligence. The kind authors, artists, composers, (even programmers!) may have. (Or not.) First they have to learn how to take great dictation (writing words, or painting, or writing musical notes down) ... to 'get ready'. Then they need to learn to get their 'brain intelligence' out of the way to get the flow going. Many will use some kind of mind-altering substance substance to get there. (Be careful you don't get owned.) Einstein got his top ideas by imagining. Music players get their chops solid, and then 'go nuts' (or artistic, depending on the genre). If you're lucky, 'The Source' will then start pouring. (Doesn't have to be 'artistic', just something where 'new' is an advantage... you have to be open to it.)

I would add (cherry picked):

(1) try examining and playing with your beliefs. I highly recommend Sleight of Mouth, a book by Robert Dilts [0], in this area - it's 'content free' framework.

(2) ...also within the realm of mind/language, get to know 'meta model' from NLP patterning - this will work in the same direction as (1). Fifth chapter in [2] will show you the way. It's also 'content free' knowledge - meta knowledge.

(3) last, but not least... another big framework for a complete make over is to get to know a Voice Dialogue perspective. Embracing Our Selves [3] is a great and complete resource (I know, I repeat myself with this one a lot).

The changes you introduce using these perspectives will make a big, slow ripples throughout your mind. Voice Dialogue can blow your mind in an instant. All of this will help you release limitations of your mind which your mind places on itself. The path does not end and the journey is fascinating.

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/667096.Sleight_of_Mouth

[2] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61610.Introducing_Neuro_...

[3] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/419437.Embracing_Ourselv...

Interesting, as I'm getting older I realize just how much noise is out there and that I actually should be doing and knowing less, not more. A free and ready mind is an awesome resource. All the cool stuff people know? Often (not always) not that important, except as a knowledge discipline in itself / art. But I'm only in my early 30s.

Gain mastery over some field and start chunking. This idea of chunking is something that was discovered when measuring the intelligence and memory of chess grand masters. It was found that they did not have higher intelligent or better memories. Instead what was happening was that they had started chunking their knowledge and thus could process the data (chess board) much faster and efficiently and this allowed their minds to work on doing something new, since all the obvious moves where already intuitive for them.

Two recommendations:

1/ The Bioneer - Current research on improving intelligence/working memory - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsGFCg72zoA&list=PLZo07XrNsS...

2/ Huberman Lab podcast - A deep dive into the mechanisms of our brain and body - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-focus-to-change...

Take time off, hike in the woods with no stress, eat very healthy, have sex, etc. Basically just be really healthy. Brain training exercises dont work. You can try to do new things, like learn to paint with your non dominant hand.

Learn how to breath. Learn how to listen to your body. Exercise walking and anything that requires great flexibility and control,yoga,dance,roofing on a 12/12 pitch roof. Learn hard new things outside your field to the point of marketable functionality. Finish or be done with the things lurking in the background. Realise that many people who come accross as intelligent are just cunning,oportunists,who have memorised much but know very little. Take risks.

Interesting read. I'm 62 but hang out with a lot of people in their 20s and 30s. I enjoy learning new things and fiddling with technology. Age is just a number. My long term gosl is to be the oldest person to through hike the AT. I also plan to have a work+free income of no less than $100K per year by age 70. These goals keep me interested, active, and learning.

Learn about mental models (tools to understand and predict things about the world) then practice using them.

For learning, check out fs.blog: https://fs.blog/mental-models/

For practice, check out Decision School: http://decisionschool.org/

Question everything. Not just the obvious things like "how does crypto work", but also mundane things you encounter in everyday life: Why did they react that way? Could I have handled that better? Why was ___ placed in that location? Why isn't there a ___ here? Why is ___ more expensive than ___? What are they trying to achieve with ___? Why do I want ___? Etc.

Half the battle is knowing what you don’t know, go learn it !

If you are meeting smart people, talk to them and learn from them.

Otherwise, read more, think more, rest, relax, and have fun in between.

Lower your stress level. Secure your finances, relationships.

Intelligence is a non goal. Goal is to satisfy your curiosity, or accomplish some goals, or learn something interesting.

I haven’t seen this mentioned yet: Spaced Repetition. There is no better way to learn and retain information. Personally, I use Anki.

Exercise, enough sleep, a healthy diet, and staying hydrated can make your brain work better.

I have an intuitive sense that you have the intelligence to meet your goals, so the keys will end up being focus, drive, the ability to stay with it when the going gets really rough, and the humility to ask for help when you need it.

if you aren't challenging yourself (mentally) there is not much you can do to improve.

I recommend diving deep into problems that interest you, noodle on them until you fully understand the problem or start coming up with solutions. This also improves your intuition.

Personally, my memory (especially working memory) improves drastically after long hours and days of thinking. Memory improves as you build your cognitive knowledge map and the puzzle pieces start to connect and the picture becomes clearer.

Pick a problem that means something to you and start from there. It's sometimes hard to find such problems especially if you aren't into a particular domain. In such cases, start by understanding a domain you love and the problems will start popping.

https://www.quora.com/What-can-I-do-to-become-smarter

this link may be helpful.

//I am constantly meeting people younger than me that just blow me away with their smarts//

How old are you? How old they? Can you give some example of "blew away smartness"?

Play Dual-N-Back everyday. I felt the difference personally. Feels hard in the beginning, but keep going. You can feel the difference in a month. All the best.

youtube has great content for science, from popularising to courses and conferences. E.g. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWvq4kcdNI1r1jZKFw9TiUA

Never stop learning. Try to learn something new every day. Document the process.

Read this book: The Brain That Changes Itself. You'll thank me later.

I would say don't. It seems you realize more suffering that way.

Read hard stuff (in math).

Find first priciples always.

use simple but powerful tool, like math.

for programming language, the more math-like, the better.

You cannot alter your IQ. It simply cannot be done.

You can ensure you are optimally utilising your brain by giving it ideal conditions, including highly regimented consistent sleep, micro and macronutrients.