Posts Tagged ‘brain’

What Storytellers Can Teach You About How to Learn Faster

Storytelling is a demanding craft. Not only do you have to be able to write or perform the story accurately, you need to create vivid descriptions. Boring, complex or difficult to understand metaphors can turn an imaginative journey into a lifeless plot.

You may not think of it deliberately, but learning is very similar to storytelling. You need to give yourself vivid, memorable and emotionally descriptions… » Continue

January 3 2008 | By Scott H | Tagged: brain, grades, holistic, improvement, learning, mental, metaphor, Productivity, study, thinking | 21 comments»

4 Reasons Why Curiosity is Important and How to Develop It

The important thing is not to stop questioning… Never lose a holy curiosity. Albert Einstein

Curiosity is an important trait of a genius. I don’t think you can find an intellectual giant who is not a curious person. Thomas Edison, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, they are all curious characters. Richard Feynman was especially known for his adventures which came from his curiosity.

But why is curiosity so important?… » Continue

November 14 2007 | By Donald | Tagged: brain, creativity, learning, mind, thinking | 19 comments»

Rico Clusters: An Alternative to Mind Mapping

I’m not a big fan of mind mapping, though I concede that it does have its uses. Recently, I learned of a different approach to brainstorming that seems both more practical and better grounded in the way the mind works than traditional, Buzan-style mind mapping. This approach, called the Rico Cluster after its developer, Dr. Gabrielle Rico, focuses on the creation of a “web” of related and… » Continue

October 24 2007 | By Dustin | Tagged: brain, brainstorming, creativity, mindmap, outlining, rico_cluster, teaching, thought, writing | 30 comments»

Three More Reasons Why Your Brain is Not Your Friend

Last week, I explained some of the ways that our brain tricks us. There’s more ways than just the three I listed that the brain works in odd and mysterious ways, causing us no end of mischief. Here’s three more:

I am not a racist!

In 1964, a woman named Kitty Genovese was beaten and killed in an attack witnessed by dozens of people, none of whom… » Continue

October 19 2007 | By Dustin | Tagged: brain, perception, psychology, racism, thought | 21 comments»

Your Brain is Not Your Friend

A mind is a terrible thing. Whether because of the brain’s internal structure or the way social and cultural pressures cause our minds to develop and function, in the end the result is the same: minds that are not only easily deceived and frequently deceptive in their own right, but when caught out, refuse to accept and address their errors. If you have a mind — or… » Continue

October 12 2007 | By Dustin | Tagged: brain, psychology, thought | 36 comments»

Writing and Remembering: Why We Remember What We Write

A few weeks ago I wrote a post on note-taking skills. One common experience many people have, and that several people mentioned in response to that post, is that when they take good notes they remember things well enough that they rarely end up having to look at their notes again.

In fact, it seems that writing anything down makes us remember it better. On the other… » Continue

September 28 2007 | By Dustin | Tagged: brain, memory, notetaking, studying, thought | 22 comments»

7 Stupid Thinking Errors You Probably Make

The brain isn’t a flawless piece of machinery. Although it is powerful and comes in an easy to carry container, it has it’s weaknesses. A field in psychology which studies these errors, known as biases. Although you can’t upgrade your mental hardware, noticing these biases can clue you into possible mistakes.

How Bias Hurts You

If you were in a canoe, you’d probably want to know about any… » Continue

September 11 2007 | By Scott H | Tagged: bias, brain, decide, heuristic, learn, Lifehack, logic, mental, study, think, thinking | 86 comments»

10 Habits Of Effective Brains

Feed the brain, know what makes it work better. These are simple enough to start now - if you haven’t already.

Thrive on Learning and Mental Challenges. The point of having a brain is precisely to learn and to adapt to challenging new environments. Once new neurons appear in your brain, where they stay in your brain and how long they survive depends on how you use them. “Use It… » Continue

August 24 2007 | By Craig | Tagged: brain | 1 comment»

How To Automatically Read A Book Per Week Without Taking Any Additional Time Out Of Your Day

If you’re anything like me, you probably have a whole stack of books sitting around that you’re really going to read some day. Yeah right!

Sure, it would be nice to get some more reading done, but let’s face it: there is usually something more urgent that needs to get done. And when you have to do all the urgent things, there isn’t much time left over for… » Continue

July 19 2007 | By Brian | Tagged: audio, book, brain, education, learn, leverage, listen, reading | 27 comments»

Nine Brain Quirks You Didn’t Realize You Had

I think the brain is most interesting when it doesn’t work the way you expect it should. Psychology often confirms our intuitions about how our minds work, but it offers quite a few surprises as well. Although some psychology buff’s will have heard a few of these before, here’s a list of quirks in your brain you probably didn’t realize you had:

1) Your short-term memory… » Continue

July 11 2007 | By Scott H | Tagged: brain, feature, mind | 98 comments»

Genius – You Can Be One Too!

When we think of a genius we think of someone who was a prodigy in their childhood and later went on to capitalize on their mental powers and make a success out of their lives, perhaps finding the cure for cancer or joining NASA to help launch man into outer space.
As a general rule these are people we hold up as an exception to the rule, a run… » Continue

July 4 2007 | By George | Tagged: brain, genius | 41 comments»

Reboot Your Brain With Practical Meditation

Meditation isn’t just a spiritual practice. If done properly, meditation can be a practical one. Through taking more traditional meditative practices and altering them to fit my needs, I’ve found it can serve many purposes:

Focus. Meditating can cut through distractions and focus your mind. I’ve found certain meditations to be useful to give myself an extra edge in directing my thinking.
Imagination. Visualizing different scenes

» Continue

July 2 2007 | By Scott H | Tagged: brain, focus, meditation | 14 comments»

Read The Classics To Improve Your Mind

Reading in general is an excellent tool to improve thought, memory and other brainy things; but have you considered reading more of ‘The Classics’?

John Wesley at PickTheBrain argues that more people should delve into those books written by the masters to develop the parts of your brain that might be falling behind in the midst of feedreaders and gossip sites.

5. Historical Perspective
I could argue this point myself, but why… » Continue

June 21 2007 | By Craig | Tagged: brain, mind, reading | 1 comment»

Lumosity - Games to reclaim your brain

Hands up with you want to speed up your thinking, improve your memory for names and numbers, or increase your alertness and awareness? Okay, there is a new site called Lumosity which is a brain fitness program designed to improve your memory, attention and processing speed. Research proves Lumosity trained people has noticeable improvements on their brain performance. The program is useful, and its games and exercises are fun… » Continue

June 1 2007 | By Leon | Tagged: brain, software, training | 8 comments»

How to Boost Your Brain Power

Have you ever noticed that some people effortlessly learn new concepts and materials while others struggle? Napoleon Bonaparte learned the names of thousands of his loyal soldiers. World champion chess players can replay games in their mind from years ago. I have often wondered how these intellectual marvels have accomplished such great feats.

Some were born with extraordinarily high IQ’s, but certainly not all.

Fortunately, there are a number of techniques… » Continue

May 18 2007 | By Kim | Tagged: brain, learning | 22 comments»

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