Complex Numbers

I Think Therefore I Think

Running a little late today thanks to my good buddy Al Q. Hall. So this one's gonna be short. It's also very obviously an ad for the author's book, but hey, that's okay; they're up front about it this time, and I don't begrudge another writer the opportunity to promote their book, as long as it's not a stealth ad.

https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2018/12/14/think-better/

How to Think Better

Periodically, someone comes along and says, proudly, something like "I specialize in thinking outside the box." Here's the thing: First learn to think, period.

Imagine if you could take a pill that would double your intelligence. What would that feel like?

LSD, very likely. Not that I have any experience with that.

Writing your thoughts is the key to better thinking.

Duh.

Cognitive scientists believe that working memory is one of the major components of intelligence. Working memory is like the RAM for your mind. It consists of all the things you’re keeping in mind simultaneously.

If working memory is key to intelligence, than I'm dumb as a rock.

People who can hold more numbers in their heads, have higher working memories and are often more intelligent generally.

Correlation? Causation? Who cares?

Are you struggling with an important problem in life or work? Your first instinct should be to get a piece of paper and start writing it down. Jot down all the elements of the problem, including all your different ideas for a solution.

Who uses ancient technology anymore?

One of my most popular studying tactics was the Feynman Technique. This technique boils down to using writing to make it easier to understand hard problems in math, science and other subjects.

No snark here; Feynman was a legit genius. Still, that doesn't mean we'll be geniuses if we emulate him.

Without writing, it isn’t simply that I would have tons of unrecorded ideas, bumping around in my skull, but that those ideas wouldn’t exist. They are created by the act of writing, much more so than they are being recorded.

I feel like this is dead obvious, but maybe not to someone who's not a writer.

I could go into another discussion of how language is a compression algorithm, but I'm going to need to drink a lot of water, take some Advil, and veg out by bingeing Season 2 of Altered Carbon on Netflix. In other words, the opposite of thinking.