Get Smart

The biggest thinkers in the world are constantly coming up with ways to make you smarter and unearthing things that hold you back. Roisin McBrien delves into some brilliant minds to discover 5 things that make our brains lazy and how you can overcome them.

What makes our brains more sluggish and how do we ramp up our brain cells has been plaguing the minds of the world's big thinkers for some time. Chief among them is John Brockman, an intellectual entrepreneur and editor at the Edge. The Edge is a website which creates a space for dialog between the academic world and an intellectually curious public. For the last ten years, Brockman has submitted a scientific inquiry, different every year, to some of the world's most brilliant minds. When he asked them one year What scientific principle will increase everyone's cognitive toolkit? - in a nutshell he was asking them what could make you brainier? The results are contained in his book: This Will Make You Smarter - which is a collection of 151 short essays by his smart colleagues with the answer to just that question.

So here are four of the most surprising answers contained in those essays which reveal everyday things that slow down our brain processes and what we can do to counteract them.

We Slavishly Believe Marketeers

The Problem

The human race has become consumed with having the best products on the market; this has become so important to us that we blindly allow ourselves to be manipulated into buying things that we don't need. Our minds have become lazy and no longer seek out information on why we need these products or how they will improve our quality of life. This idea is explored in This Will Make You Smarter in an essay by Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman. Kahneman analyses a notion known as focusing illusion, about which he states: "Marketers exploit the focusing illusion. When people are induced to believe that they must have a good (a product), they greatly exaggerate the difference that the good will make to the quality of their life." Kahneman's analysis opens up a conversation about how us humans have become so careless in our thought processes that we can be manipulated easily by marketeers into buying things we do not need. We have lost all curiosity and no longer question why we might need a certain product, or how it works.

The Fix

Fortunately, there is a way to combat this stagnant way of thinking. Human interaction and engagement are vital to human brain development. Taking time away from technology and detoxing from the technological world is important and immersing ourselves in activities such as reading and exercising will help. If we are in the market for buying something, taking time to do our own research and to be curious about what we are purchasing, what we would use it for and how it could benefit us, focusses and stimulates the mind. Pause between impulse to buy and buying.

We Don’t Want to Feel Too Much

The Problem

Another interesting concept discussed in Brockman's book is by the father of positive psychology, Martin Seligman. He writes about PERMA, the five pillars of well-being — Positive Emotion, Engagement, Positive Relationships, Meaning and Purpose, and Accomplishment. Seligman says that humans need to work through difficult emotions (what he terms disabling conditions) in a world which encourages them not to. "Science and public policy have traditionally been focused solely on remediating the disabling conditions, but PERMA suggests that this is insufficient”, he says. If we want the world to be better we need to measure and build those five pillars of wellbeing. In our own life, he advises; “ if you wish to flourish personally, getting rid of depression, anxiety, and anger and getting rich is not enough, you also need to build PERMA directly". According to Seligman, we live in an age where people lack the desire to understand or feel their emotions, and we often associate being emotional with being weak. We have little desire to know why we think the way we do and why we act the way we do, so how can we ever successfully build PERMA in our lives?

The Fix

Understanding our emotions and taking time for self reflection can help us to understand ourselves more. Exploring the fundamentals of our psychological makeup enhances our intellectual capacity. It is far more healthy to allow ourselves to feel our emotions naturally. Engage in some self-questioning to explore how you feel: What evokes positive emotions? What brings us joy? How do we engage with the people, places and things around us? What is our purpose in life? A great way to practice self-reflection is through journaling or speaking to a close friend or family member that we trust. Our emotions can be frightening, but taking the time to understand them is important in keeping our brains healthy.

We Fear Failure

The Problem

Questioning our thoughts and actions are vital for brain stimulation but is it possible that we are afraid to search for intellectual stimulation because we fear failure? This is another idea explored in John Brockman's book. Kevin Kelly, futurist and the founder of Wired magazine, warns against the fear of failure. In his essay, Kelly says: “We can learn nearly as much from an experiment that does not work as from one that does. Failure is not something to be avoided but rather something to be cultivated”. He broadens that out to include not just laboratory research, but “design, sport, engineering, art, entrepreneurship, and even daily life itself”. In fact Kelly goes one step further and says that: “All creative avenues yield the maximum when failures are embraced”. In other words we stand a better chance of achieving and learning if we are not frightened to fail.

The Fix

Start to see failure as a learning curve, something to be welcomed. If you fail at something, see it as achievement in and of itself, embrace it, utilise it and view it as a positive while appreciating the lessons it teaches you. Have the courage to take risks and attempt new things without fear of failing, accept and learn from the errors and use trial and error to figure out what works best for us. Remember it is far better to have tried and failed than not to have tried at all.

We Don’t Like to Be Wrong

The Problem

As we grow older our need to be right is stronger. However, theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli tells us in his essay that our uncertainty and the willingness to be proven wrong are a vital part of intellect and add to our personal growth, throughout our lives. “Precisely because we keep questioning everything, especially our own premises, we are always ready to improve our knowledge”, he explains. This lack of certainty, he says, is what makes “conclusions more reliable than the conclusions of those who are certain”. In other words, if we are open to being wrong we enhance our personal and intellectual growth.

The Fix

Try not to have set ideas that become embedded over time. Be open to remaining curious and seeking out new information. Look at things from all angles and try to understand an opposing viewpoint. Opening ourselves up to doubt and being proven incorrect expands our cognitive toolkits.

For more visit edge.org