What defines intelligence? or creativity or memory? Is there a way that we can increase our own? How much effort should one invest in bettering their intelligence and creativity as opposed to just using it?
I think about these things often. Having an interesting idea and implementing it is really fun and exciting. Both can be difficult. Ideas are only as good as ones ability to implement them and if you cannot have ideas it doesn't matter how great you are at implementing them.
I have been trying to track when I have my most interesting ideas. It seems that they occur when I am dramatically exposed to a large amount of new stimuli or when I have time to think. I have been having trouble with exposing myself to new stimuli. This is a hard task. Where does one look? I try and read science journals that are out of my field but I am having trouble with this. As for the time to think I have a reminder on my Google Calendar to take 5 minutes a day and try and think of something new. I take 5 minutes and relax and close my eyes and listen to Zoe. It works ok but I think I definitely need the fresh stimuli.
Is there a better way to think? Is the way I think in general about things inferior to a possible different way of thinking? This is really hard to quantify. I often try to modify my thought patterns to be more productive. I have tried to teach myself(very little effort) to be able to hold two things in my mind at one time(There should be an old blog post on that here) . I probably should put more effort into that. Thinking is a very abstract idea. Sometimes my brain is so good at processing complex thoughts and my memory works very well, other times it does not. How do I make things function optimally all the time? Difficult to figure out. I have started drinking alcohol much less. Hmmm but I don't really have many more ideas?
One thing that I can quantify that is related to intelligence and creativity is memory. I have been listening to the audiobook Moonwalking with Einstein. I do prefer paper books but I recently found out I had an audible.com account active for a year so I have lots of credits to use... Anyways, as most things do it has inspired me more to better my memory. For the past year or so I have used Memory Trainer an android app. It has taught me interesting things about my memory and has also improved my memory to where I can non-mnemonically memorize sequences of numbers up to around 10 digits fairly easy by chunking. It is free and probably just as fun as Angry Birds or some such game though I have never played Angry Birds so I might not be the correct person to ask. I think by learning some mnemonic memory techniques I can create an overall better memory for the rest of my life.
I decided I would take 5 minutes or so everyday and practice memorizing strings of numbers. I wrote a small program in Perl to allow me to test myself (http://pastebin.com/nyJWs0e3).
I really want to be able to think the best I possibly can. Nothing makes me more excited than having an interesting idea and executing it as you can probably see by my blog. I think the complexity and originality of the idea are what make me excited. These two things require my best creativity, my best ability to generate new ideas and my best brain function to think about complex things. I wish these came easy to me. I think I need to take more time and just relax and think and calm down and experience. Think. Creative. Execute.
If only I was smarter.
And after just sitting and staring off into space for no reason I just had a fun idea!
Do people make more spelling mistakes when they are happy or when they are sad and can we figure this out using twitter?
