<story><title>Ask HN: How do I become smarter?</title><text>my situation:&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m 19 years old and I go to a not so great (according to Macleans university rankings) university in Canada. I would like to make a transfer to Waterloo and then go to graduate school at Stanford or MIT. These are just some of the goals that I&apos;d like to achieve in my academic career. I would just like to prove to myself that I have what it takes and I would like to be in that academic environment (Sorry if I worded it poorly).&lt;p&gt;At the moment I know I definitely am not trying as hard as I should..I don&apos;t remember the last time I engaged myself with hard problems or where to start. I&apos;ve been feeling pretty lost in what I&apos;ve wanted to do with my life so I just decided to follow Paul Grahams advice and just go with what gives me the most options (http://paulgraham.com/hs.html).&lt;p&gt;When it comes to learning new things or building off old concepts, I feel like I have a poor foundation and I just don&apos;t know where to start. How can build a great foundation where I can understand the concepts intuitively?&lt;p&gt;In short, how can I become smarter?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>mmaunder</author><text>I have great news for you. The brain is extremely plastic. Read about neuroplasticity here:
&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rest assured that your capacity to acquire new skills and knowledge is massive.&lt;p&gt;You don&apos;t just get smarter. You get smarter at something in particular. Playing chess, doing IQ tests, running the 100m dash, programming, social skills, public speaking, etc. So you need to pick a particular skill or set of skills or vocation and decide to get smarter at that.&lt;p&gt;There are some general rules for improving brain function though. Here are a few:&lt;p&gt;1. Read books. Reading trains your brain to concentrate for long periods of time without fatigue or distraction. There is a growing school of thought that the short bursts of reading and frequent distractions we experience online are harming our ability for deep contemplation, introspection and concentration. See Nicholas Carr, The Shallows. &lt;a href=&quot;http://n.pr/bnAfRV&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://n.pr/bnAfRV&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;2. Try to get 10 hours of sleep a night. Sleep improves mental and athletic performance. &lt;a href=&quot;http://n.pr/9wQsXr&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://n.pr/9wQsXr&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;3. Maintain your cardiovascular fitness. I highly recommend running. After years of cycling, swimming, hiking, etc I&apos;ve found that running gives my brain function the biggest boost and provides me with sustained mental energy through the day. A good cardiovascular system supplies your brain with plenty of healthy oxygen rich blood. It&apos;s like putting racing fuel in your car.&lt;p&gt;4. Eat well. Cook your own food. Avoid processed or pre-prepared foods and non-organic foods (mainly due to the pesticides). Fish is awesome, but watch out for mercury.&lt;p&gt;5. Don&apos;t drink anything stronger than wine. Don&apos;t do drugs. (just like your mom told you)&lt;p&gt;6. Watch your weight. I find the biggest source of mental fatigue is when I&apos;ve gained a few pounds.&lt;p&gt;Good luck, and congratulations on making the decision at a relatively young age to focus on your mental fitness.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>stcredzero</author><text>#2 - Some researchers think there is wide variability in the optimal amount of sleep.  Some even think that you can get too much sleep.  The thing to do is to pay attention and experiment.  I sleep in two sessions, one 4 hours, the second three.  Getting more sleep makes me feel a little worse.  The good news, is that there are cheap sleep monitoring smartphone apps.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: How do I become smarter?</title><text>my situation:&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m 19 years old and I go to a not so great (according to Macleans university rankings) university in Canada. I would like to make a transfer to Waterloo and then go to graduate school at Stanford or MIT. These are just some of the goals that I&apos;d like to achieve in my academic career. I would just like to prove to myself that I have what it takes and I would like to be in that academic environment (Sorry if I worded it poorly).&lt;p&gt;At the moment I know I definitely am not trying as hard as I should..I don&apos;t remember the last time I engaged myself with hard problems or where to start. I&apos;ve been feeling pretty lost in what I&apos;ve wanted to do with my life so I just decided to follow Paul Grahams advice and just go with what gives me the most options (http://paulgraham.com/hs.html).&lt;p&gt;When it comes to learning new things or building off old concepts, I feel like I have a poor foundation and I just don&apos;t know where to start. How can build a great foundation where I can understand the concepts intuitively?&lt;p&gt;In short, how can I become smarter?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>mmaunder</author><text>I have great news for you. The brain is extremely plastic. Read about neuroplasticity here:
&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rest assured that your capacity to acquire new skills and knowledge is massive.&lt;p&gt;You don&apos;t just get smarter. You get smarter at something in particular. Playing chess, doing IQ tests, running the 100m dash, programming, social skills, public speaking, etc. So you need to pick a particular skill or set of skills or vocation and decide to get smarter at that.&lt;p&gt;There are some general rules for improving brain function though. Here are a few:&lt;p&gt;1. Read books. Reading trains your brain to concentrate for long periods of time without fatigue or distraction. There is a growing school of thought that the short bursts of reading and frequent distractions we experience online are harming our ability for deep contemplation, introspection and concentration. See Nicholas Carr, The Shallows. &lt;a href=&quot;http://n.pr/bnAfRV&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://n.pr/bnAfRV&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;2. Try to get 10 hours of sleep a night. Sleep improves mental and athletic performance. &lt;a href=&quot;http://n.pr/9wQsXr&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://n.pr/9wQsXr&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;3. Maintain your cardiovascular fitness. I highly recommend running. After years of cycling, swimming, hiking, etc I&apos;ve found that running gives my brain function the biggest boost and provides me with sustained mental energy through the day. A good cardiovascular system supplies your brain with plenty of healthy oxygen rich blood. It&apos;s like putting racing fuel in your car.&lt;p&gt;4. Eat well. Cook your own food. Avoid processed or pre-prepared foods and non-organic foods (mainly due to the pesticides). Fish is awesome, but watch out for mercury.&lt;p&gt;5. Don&apos;t drink anything stronger than wine. Don&apos;t do drugs. (just like your mom told you)&lt;p&gt;6. Watch your weight. I find the biggest source of mental fatigue is when I&apos;ve gained a few pounds.&lt;p&gt;Good luck, and congratulations on making the decision at a relatively young age to focus on your mental fitness.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mikeleeorg</author><text>+1 for a great response. I totally agree. I would like to expand upon one of the points and add a few more too.&lt;p&gt;Expanding on #3:&lt;p&gt;Team sports &amp;#38; activities can increase not just mental acuity, but social acuity as well. Being academically intelligent will get you far, but being socially &amp;#38; emotionally intelligent as well will get you even further.&lt;p&gt;Also, martial arts, dancing, and any kind of activity that requires fine coordination can significantly build new neural patterns. If you enjoy doing them, then the overall mental health you gain is a total bonus.&lt;p&gt;#7:&lt;p&gt;Learning a new language and/or travel outside of your country. Different languages and cultures can actually affect the way you perceive the world in subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) ways. They expand your understanding &amp;#38; view of the world, thereby allowing you to see an issue from multiple viewpoints.&lt;p&gt;A quick example is national and global politics. I don&apos;t really care for politicians, but I try to follow the shifts in the world climate as much as I can. And I&apos;m always impressed by how my European friends seem to have such a keen understanding of US politics, while I&apos;m scratching my head about European politics.&lt;p&gt;#8:&lt;p&gt;Foster many interests. If you have a random interest in birds, feed it. Read books on birds. Go bird watching. Join a bird watching group.&lt;p&gt;One of the reasons people are cited as geniuses is because they are able to engage in lateral thinking. They can see patterns in seemingly unrelated topics. This is a powerful mental mechanism that can help in all facets of life - especially in solving difficult problems.&lt;p&gt;#9:&lt;p&gt;Engage in critical thinking. Practice the art of asking &quot;Why?&quot; Don&apos;t always accept what you see and hear at face value. Question it, probe behind it, and get at the underlying truth.&lt;p&gt;The news media is a great place to practice this. I used to work in this industry and even studied subjects like communication, propaganda, and marketing in college.&lt;p&gt;Allow your curiosity to take over as you read the news or watch a TV show. If something doesn&apos;t make sense, try searching for more information about it online. Read about it until you&apos;ve satisfied that itch of curiosity.&lt;p&gt;One word of caution here: this can be taken too far. I think it&apos;s a fine practice to think critically about the declarations people tend to make. I have many friends who say things that seem to be full of questionable assumptions. I want nothing more than to question their statements and challenge them. But doing so can easily cross the line into obnoxiousness. For friends who like to debate, I&apos;ll jump right into it. But I pick those battles carefully. Some can take it, some can&apos;t.&lt;p&gt;I hope this helps. It&apos;s great that you&apos;re asking this question. Wish I had asked it when I was 19. Good luck!</text></comment>