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How to Get Smarter
 While listening to the audio version of Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath I found it fascinating how the human mind stores and recalls memories. The authors use various urban myths, proverbs and stories to show why some things are easy to remember and others are not.
Of course this book is tailored toward helping marketing people, but I see many parallels where the same techniques can be used for high octane memorization in normal daily life. One neat concept covered was the use of stories where the person is told something unexpected. The book says that humans adapt quickly by filtering the things it already knows, the most memorable stories tend to have an unpredictable twist.
 Coincidentally, I picked up a copy of Wired magazine the other day that had an article inspired by the new Get Smart movie. It talked about improving your mental capacity, while exposing the myths that supposedly help make you smarter. Distraction was one technique that the article pointed out as useful. As shown in the Made to Stick example of the unpredictable twist, the Wired article said that unexpected distraction kicks in the minds ability to process incoming information.
As for the myths, contrary to the marketing, video games, crosswords, eating fish, B Vitamins, and Ginko Biloba do not make you the brightest bulb in the bunch. So what else can you use to improve your cognitive abilities?
You can read the whole article HERE:
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