Intelligence can and should be developed in any person, no matter what he does in life and what heights he has reached. Many people believe that a mathematical mindset, a humanitarian mindset is given to us from birth, but neuroscientists have proven that our brain is plastic and capable of developing, since it will be downloaded and developed.
Of course, when a child is born, some data is already put into it, then parents and teachers put it in it, but in addition to learning, you need to constantly load your brain additionally and strive to develop intelligence.
What is intelligence
The concept of “intelligence” is heard by everyone, but few understand what it really means. General erudition, the ability to think logically or solve mathematical problems are often mistaken for intelligence. In fact, the concept of “intelligence” is much broader.
Intelligence is a mental function responsible for a person’s adaptation to the world around him. It consists of several components that form a single complex system.
It is the development of intelligence that determines how successful a person will be in life. You can be a walking encyclopedia, but be completely unable to apply your knowledge in practice. But with average abilities you can achieve simply incredible results.
Intelligence is closely related to cognitive functions - perception, attention, thinking, speech. With the help of them, he receives “food”, which he subsequently processes and uses to build effective strategies and implement them.
According to recent studies, 50% of human intelligence is determined by genes. This means that we have the second 50% that we can actively influence. Our task is to get the maximum out of them. And for this you need to constantly develop. Anyone who firmly grasps this truth now, in a year will be able to achieve such intellectual heights that he has never even dreamed of.
How much do you need to develop yourself?
The answer to this question directly depends on what you want to get out of life, what small and global goals you are pursuing and how well you have the tools to achieve them. I am convinced that this needs to be done throughout life and constantly increase the tasks, as well as hone them for a certain age and needs. At the same time, I am also confident that our close environment helps us develop ourselves and directly influences our harmonious portrait as a person.
That's why it's always so moving to watch the Academy Awards ceremony when the winners thank those who were there along the way. Although, it is worth noting that everyone in life has certain crises that require solutions, and sometimes, having achieved a certain, so alluring goal, one becomes lazy to develop oneself further and wants to fold one’s hands and do nothing. In this case, I give myself one day of complete rest - without work, the Internet, mobile phone and news - I enjoy the rest, and after a couple of days this depressive state suddenly goes away.
I think, dear readers of GQ Blog Monitor, you definitely love to develop yourself creatively, especially since there are a lot of ways to do this. One of them can be considered a series of webinars, which will start in May. Through these online practices, we will explore basic personality, character, and behavior types and how they impact our world and our investing policies.
Traditionally, when putting a period in the material from the “Thoughts” section, I would replace it with an ellipsis. I wish you to develop yourself from different sides and get indescribable pleasure from it. And since the material ends with an ellipsis - an open ending, your useful comments and valuable tips below will help make it more complete and informative.
Author Ganesa K.
A professional investor with 5 years of experience working with various financial instruments, runs his own blog and advises investors. Own effective methods and information support for investments.
Types of intelligence
There are many different classifications of intelligence. The most famous one belongs to the American psychologist Howard Gardner. He identified 8 types of intelligence:
- spatial,
- bodily-kinesthetic,
- musical,
- linguistic,
- logical-mathematical,
- interpersonal,
- intrapersonal,
- naturalistic.
According to Gardner's theory, everyone has a dominant intelligence that determines what a person can be successful at. Based on this, standard IQ tests are untenable, since they only measure the level of logical-mathematical intelligence.
Another classification divides intelligence into 4 components:
- Mental intelligence is responsible for rational thinking. It is applicable wherever the laws of logic apply.
- Physical or bodily intelligence controls processes associated with controlling the body.
- Emotional intelligence deals with emotions and interpersonal interactions.
- Spiritual intelligence is associated with the subconscious, intuition, and ethical categories.
All components of intelligence require development. If you pay attention to only one thing, you will not achieve harmony. Some important areas of life will be limping.
How to become smart: 50+ effective ways
At all times there have been ways to become more beautiful.
Therefore, even our grandmothers went on diets, made masks and rinsed their hair with herbal decoctions. Modern cosmetology and surgery can completely change a person beyond recognition. But only a few are engaged in “pumping” the mind. And the reason is not at all due to fashion trends: intelligence is considered a natural, innate quality. But this is not entirely true. After all, everything can be achieved by working hard on yourself. In this article we will talk about ways to “upgrade” intellectual abilities available to every person. You will learn how to become smarter and improve your memory, develop creative thinking and emotional intelligence, which helps you avoid annoying mistakes in everyday life. Interesting? Read on!
Recommendations for developing intelligence
It is not difficult to develop your mental abilities. It is enough to devote 20–30 minutes a day to this process. Of course, you shouldn’t hope for sky-high results. Our recommendations and exercises will not make you a genius like Einstein or Newton. But they will help you realize your potential, increase your efficiency, and generally make your life more productive.
Read more
Reading is perhaps the best way to develop intelligence. By reading good literature, we broaden our horizons, learn to think logically, develop imagination and imaginative thinking. By good literature, first of all, I mean artistic classics, biographies of great people, books on history, philosophy, and scientific works.
Make a list of books you want to read and get started. 30 books a year is the minimum required to keep your brain in good shape. If you get more - great!
Expand your horizons
We have already found out that there is no useless knowledge. The more of them in your luggage, the more neural connections are formed in your brain. So always look for opportunities to learn something new.
Read popular science articles, watch educational programs, take an interest in current events in the world. And be sure to reflect on what you learn, express your opinion, discuss with friends. Strive to become a true polymath. This will not only help you develop your intelligence, but will also make communication with you valuable and interesting.
Dig Deeper
It is very important to develop not only in breadth, but also in depth. Look for opportunities to deepen and enrich your existing knowledge. You must have an area that you know inside and out. It's best if this is your profession.
If in the process of expanding our horizons we form new neural circuits, then, while working to deepen our knowledge, we establish connections between existing neural circuits. As a result, all mental processes associated with a specific activity begin to proceed faster. Some of them move to the unconscious level, freeing our consciousness. At this stage, intuition comes into play.
Remember how Dmitry Mendeleev discovered his famous table. He studied the properties of elements for many years, thought a lot and worked on the problem. As a result, his brain did the finishing touches for him, giving him a brilliant idea in a dream.
Get creative
Even if you have never held brushes in your hands and a bear stepped on your ear, this is not a reason to give up creativity. Your task is not to create world masterpieces, but to relieve your brain. Constantly engaged in mental work, our thinking becomes dull and begins to feel hungry for simple and understandable stimuli.
Drawing, modeling, sewing, music - choose an activity that you like. Give it at least a couple of hours a week. This is enough to give the brain a break from the same type of work.
Train your memory
Memory and intelligence are two closely related functions of the brain. The effectiveness of all intellectual processes depends on how well you are able to remember new information.
To train your memory, you can learn poems, songs, monologues. Various simulators and applications are also great - we will tell you about them towards the end of the article.
Learn to think positively
Life doesn't always go swimmingly. Some circumstances can seriously unsettle us. But you remember why we need intelligence in the first place? To adapt to the surrounding world. This means that he must be flexible and help us get out of difficult situations.
And our task is not to interfere with him in this. Stop yourself from being discouraged and giving up, learn to trust yourself and believe in your strength. This will give a powerful impetus to the development of your intellect and greatly increase motivation. Think of every challenge as a chance to improve.
Communicate more
Man is a social being. All brain functions are designed for social interaction. Therefore, communication is very important for intellectual development. For interlocutors, choose people who are erudite, diversified, and have superior mental abilities.
By interacting with such people, you will gravitate towards them and adopt useful thinking habits and patterns. And also - learn something new every day and expand your horizons. And remember: high-quality communication does not mean idle chatter and spoiling your mutual friends, but the discussion of some important issues within the framework of joint activities.
How to become smarter in 1 day
There's an exam tomorrow, but your head is empty? Alas, you can become smarter in one day or night only if you have a phenomenal memory. In this case, you will have time to memorize the textbook. But every student must know a few tricks:
- Often the teacher overlooks the little things. For example, a bacteriologist himself does not remember the names of all microbes in Latin. Therefore, the more confidently you speak, the less chance that he will recognize the forgery;
- Each profession has its own answer patterns. For example, in medicine it is customary to talk about the definition of a disease, its causes, prevalence, pathogenesis, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment and prevention. Knowing the outline, you can learn the material many times faster - you just need to read only the most important things;
- If you intend to study the whole night before an exam, then take into account the “working schedule” of the brain - from 5.00 to 7.00 it rests. Therefore, it is better to give these hours to sleep.
From school, we are familiar with another way of diffusely absorbing information - you just need to put a textbook under your pillow. There is no scientific confirmation of the effectiveness of this method, but it has been used for several generations.
If you want to become smarter in one day in order to impress your chosen one, then you won’t have to cram anything. There are several ways to appear smarter:
- Take a stupid girlfriend with you - compared to her you will look like a real erudite;
- Avoid topics in which you are obviously weak. Talk about subjects that you know well;
- Don't know the meaning of a word? Ask for an explanation. After all, inquisitiveness and curiosity are characteristic only of smart people;
- Repeat phrases of famous people. This always indicates erudition;
- Be silent more, agree with your partner’s arguments. We all like to feel smart. Therefore, by providing such an opportunity to another, you yourself grow in his eyes.
And one more important fact. Smart people are characterized by restraint. Therefore, if you want to appear more reasonable, you should not show emotions too violently: laugh like a horse, publicly sob and wring your hands.
Exercises to develop intelligence
How about giving your mind a workout right now? I have prepared several exercises and games to develop intelligence.
Logic problems
Logic problems will make your brain work hard. Open a database with questions about the game “What? Where? When?”, choose a package of questions and plunge headlong into the process. I warn you - the questions are quite difficult, especially for beginners.
Therefore, to begin with, choose a package designed for schoolchildren. To give you an idea of what the questions are, here's an example.
The writer Boris Stern once said that the first book he read was a science fiction novel with three failed murder attempts and one successful one. What is this book?
This is a simple question, try to answer it yourself. You will find the answer at the end of the article. Just don't peek!
Mathematical examples
Buy or download a math problem book and solve examples from there from time to time. Try to calculate simple problems in your head, and solve more difficult ones in writing for a while.
Of course, some may find this boring and tedious. Mathematical problems with tricks were invented especially for such people. At first glance, they seem simple and uncomplicated. But the answer that seemed obvious most often turns out to be wrong. I’ll give an example from my favorite book “Puzzles of Professor Puzzles” by Mikhail Gershenzon.
One day a snail started traveling along a high wall. The wall was 10 meters high. During the day, the snail crawled up 3 meters, and during the night moved back 2 meters. How many days did it take the snail to get to the top of the wall?
What do most people do when they try to solve this problem? Calculate how many meters the snail crawls per day (3 - 2 = 1), and divide the height of the wall by this number (10 / 1 = 10). And they get the wrong answer. The correct answer is 8 days. And why, you yourself try to explain in the comments to the article. Let's check how your intellect works now.
Essays
We've done some math, now let's imagine that we're in a Russian language lesson. Write an essay on one of the given topics.
- What superpower would you like to have and why.
- What will you do if you find out that the world is going to end in a month?
- Which cartoon character would you like to be like?
- Imagine winning a million dollars in the lottery. What will you spend the money on?
- Which great person of the past would you like to meet? Describe the meeting.
In fact, you can write on absolutely any topic. The very process of putting thoughts into material form has a beneficial effect on the intellect. You learn to think consistently, highlight the main thing and cut off the unimportant. Try not just to write randomly, but to create text that would be interesting to read. Look, you’ll master the profession of a copywriter.
Meditation exercises
Meditation will help you bring order to your head and get rid of obstacles that hinder the development of your intellect. You can find many meditation techniques on the Internet, I advise you to try several and choose the one that suits you best.
And I will describe to you my favorite exercise, which combines meditation and autogenic training.
Imagine that you were able to look into your skull and see your brain. Look at it from all sides, look at every curve. Now imagine that you begin to massage it with imaginary fingers. First the outer layer, then deeper and deeper.
Massaging movements relax your brain and fill it with pleasant warmth. If extraneous thoughts arise, do not pay attention to them. They come and go like waves on the surface of the ocean. When you reach the peak of relaxation, stay in this state. Let your brain rest from the endless bustle and stress.
Useful literature
Reading books in itself develops the brain. And if these are books about intelligence, then the effect will be simply “Wow!” If our recommendations and exercises weren’t enough for you and you’re thinking about how to further develop yourself intellectually, here’s a list of good books:
- “Brain Plasticity” Norman Doidge
- “Six Thinking Hats” Edward de Bono
- “Brain rules. What you and your children should know about the brain" John Medina
- “Japanese system for the development of intelligence and memory” Ryuta Kawashima
- “Where Intelligence Is Born” John Duncan
Find a more complete selection in our article “Books on the development of intelligence.”
Online services for the development of intelligence
Finally, I want to share with you my favorite sites and applications with simulators for developing intelligence. I hope you find a use for them.
Vikium
The Vikium service includes more than 40 brain development simulators. All of them are quite simple, so you can easily fit training into your daily schedule. An individual program is compiled based on the results of testing, which each user undergoes before starting training.
Wikium is suitable for all ages. It will help your child prepare for school and improve his attentiveness. With the help of it, teenagers and adults will be able to increase their productivity, reduce the number of mistakes during work and study, and keep their brain in good shape. For older people, training will be an excellent prevention of age-related changes in the brain.
The service also has very interesting courses. For example, the Sherlock Thinking course, where you will be taught how to draw logical conclusions, recognize deception and think critically. Or the Brain Detoxification course, where you can clear your mind of destructive thoughts and attitudes.
4Brain
4Brain is a resource that contains training courses in a variety of areas: from financial literacy to acting. As part of our work on developing intelligence, you and I will be interested in several courses.
Free:
- Emotional intellect
- Critical thinking
- Making decisions
Paid:
- Quick Read
- Mnemonics
- Cognitive science
Bitreynik
On Bitreynik you can train your intellect separately, or you can choose a program to develop several functions at once: perception, memory, thinking, attention. The simulators and games are based on the achievements of cognitive psychology. Daily exercise will help you form new neural connections in your brain.
The developers promise the first results within 20 days, provided that you exercise for 10–20 minutes a day.
BrainApps
On the BrainApps service you will find as many as 52 simulators. There are also a bunch of interesting tests, including ones to determine IQ. The tasks deserve special attention. Among them are logical, mathematical, geometric, chess, erudition problems, puzzles... Most of them are available for free.
If you decide to opt for this service, I advise you to try the following simulators:
- Fruit mathematics
- Letters and numbers
- Visual geometry
- Anagrams
- Geometric switching
Here, just like on Vikium, in addition to simulators, there are ready-made courses in various areas: from memory development to learning English. I recommend the Emotional Intelligence course to you - it is interesting, rich and original.
How to become smarter in your studies
90% of teachers and parents are now concerned about the reluctance of children to comprehend science. A significant proportion of first-graders cannot learn to read for a whole year, and retelling is given to them with great difficulty. The reason for this is “clip thinking” dictated by cartoons, YouTube and TV shows. Parents need to work on developing the mind with their children:
- It is important to pay the child's attention to little things;
- After the walk, you need to ask to tell about what you saw;
- Explain the meanings of unclear words;
- From the age of 2-3, read fairy tales aloud, and a little later ask the child to share his impressions of what he read;
- Oral counting also helps develop logic and memory. For example, you can master the science of mental arithmetic together;
- The development of fine motor skills also has a positive effect on thinking. Therefore, it is important to teach your child drawing, handicrafts, and assembling mosaics and puzzles.
For the development of a student’s mind, daily routine, discipline, and order on the desktop are also important. During the first years of school, it is important to monitor compliance with these parameters.
