# Ways to improve intellect?



## Raain (Jan 3, 2012)

By intellect I don't mean your accumulated knowledge type of intellect but your ability to solve problems quickly, do mathematics quickly and accurately, memorise things, recognise patterns, abstract reasoning, react quickly to situations and concentration.

Does the only way to improve this involve doing lots of puzzles?

if so what kind of puzzles are best, and how often or how long a day should you spend doing them?


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## zwanglos (Jan 13, 2010)

Practice makes perfect, I suppose. I've been doing mathematics drills on Khan Academy for a few weeks, you might wanna give that a shot. (Read: math was never my strong point)


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## Cetanu (Jan 20, 2012)

Raain said:


> By intellect I don't mean your accumulated knowledge type of intellect but your ability to solve problems quickly, do mathematics quickly and accurately, memorise things, recognise patterns, abstract reasoning, react quickly to situations and concentration.
> 
> Does the only way to improve this involve doing lots of puzzles?
> 
> if so what kind of puzzles are best, and how often or how long a day should you spend doing them?


Coming up to the answer for this question by yourself would be one way.


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## Raain (Jan 3, 2012)

Cetanu said:


> Coming up to the answer for this question by yourself would be one way.


Yeah I was expecting someone would reply with a smart ass answer as such when creating this thread. 

Honestly couldn't care less though.


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## Cetanu (Jan 20, 2012)

Raain said:


> Yeah I was expecting someone would reply with a smart ass answer as such when creating this thread.
> 
> Honestly couldn't care less though.


You apply the same attitude to increasing your intelligence :bored:


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## StElmosDream (May 26, 2012)

Raain said:


> By intellect I don't mean your accumulated knowledge type of intellect but your ability to solve problems quickly, do mathematics quickly and accurately, memorise things, recognise patterns, abstract reasoning, react quickly to situations and concentration.
> 
> Does the only way to improve this involve doing lots of puzzles?
> 
> if so what kind of puzzles are best, and how often or how long a day should you spend doing them?


Learning more unrelated things helps, a trick I learned long ago is to not learn something but figure out how it works then tell others or discuss things in pre school terms; I find that learning something new is easier when you can attach sentience or emotional meaning to something i.e. learning history by considering how key figures may have felt or how you felt.

The rest comes with experience and accepting your learning style more; I often find that eavesdropping instinctively or asking others second opinions helps, the key is trusting them and your insights most when slow thinking has its own merits too when big picture thinking allows more time to plan for unseen variables or solve things no one noticed, simply.

Although much does come down to practise or training, when it is often so easy to lapse into lazy habits. 
Personally I don't find that puzzles or riddles help with problem solving, understanding something is often best and reading around unrelated subjects can prove invaluable. Remember one thing if a problem 'needs' solving ask the ground level people for information (ideas, opinions, thoughts, feelings, problems 'seen') when so often it seems people already have the answers but a good problem solver will steer people into the right direction not reinvent the wheel... simple, cheap, alterations are often easily ignored, this is where the high earners earn their wage most.


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## Raain (Jan 3, 2012)

StElmosDream said:


> Learning more unrelated things helps, a trick I learned long ago is to not learn something but figure out how it works then tell others or discuss things in pre school terms; I find that learning something new is easier when you can attach sentience or emotional meaning to something i.e. learning history by considering how key figures may have felt or how you felt.
> 
> The rest comes with experience and accepting your learning style more; I often find that eavesdropping instinctively or asking others second opinions helps, the key is trusting them and your insights most when slow thinking has its own merits too when big picture thinking allows more time to plan for unseen variables or solve things no one noticed, simply.
> 
> ...


Cheers, I am talking about though if you were going for something like say an aptitude test (I am not going for an aptitude test btw) were you will be tested on things like reaction times, problem solving, numerical abilities etc etc or say if your an airline pilot or something were you are expected to be very 'sharp' and 'quick'. That's what I am talking about improving upon, 'Fluid Intelligence' basically http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_and_crystallized_intelligence.


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## StElmosDream (May 26, 2012)

Raain said:


> Cheers, I am talking about though if you were going for something like say an aptitude test (I am not going for an aptitude test btw) were you will be tested on things like reaction times, problem solving, numerical abilities etc etc or say if your an airline pilot or something were you are expected to be very 'sharp' and 'quick'. That's what I am talking about improving upon.


Same thing still applies though, when innovative thinking is the result of an educated mind or intuitive understanding when many have made rash decisions and turned out to be wrong... the rest is just rinse and repeat learning coupled with aptitude or great effort, no big secret here just hard work or 'luck' when a runner must train 4-6 hours a day to break records constantly and eat healthy foods along with sleep and high hydration...


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## Boolean11 (Jun 11, 2012)

Raain said:


> By intellect I don't mean your accumulated knowledge type of intellect but your ability to solve problems quickly, do mathematics quickly and accurately, memorise things, recognise patterns, abstract reasoning, react quickly to situations and concentration.
> 
> Does the only way to improve this involve doing lots of puzzles?
> 
> if so what kind of puzzles are best, and how often or how long a day should you spend doing them?


I think by redoing the same things you'll natural start to see a pattern that underpins all those type of problems. And from that adapting should become easier. Your brain is very adaptable else I don't think anything else has been proven to work?


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## Kazuma Ikezawa (Oct 21, 2011)

This might sound weird and I'm not sure if it will work, but I think a good and fun way to improve intellect is by listening to music. Listen to musical artists that use a lot of metaphors, word play, and have hidden meanings. While listening, try to figure out what they mean. There are some sites like rapgenius.com that can give you some help interpreting. Start off listening to one artist. After listening to an artist for a while, you should start to get a feel for what kind of metaphors they like to use and what usual references they make as well as their usual topics. Sometimes you can even try interpreting songs to fit what you feel the song is saying to you or interpret it to fit your life, as opposed to figuring out what the artist wants to say.

It's also a good idea to think in your head, or write down, an idea and then think of how many connections you can make. Then take the new idea and connect it to another similar idea. You can start of with a connection of similar ideas, but after a while you can make the connections more loose, like metaphors. It can be fun to connect a long series of ideas and end up with the one that you started with. For example, think of the word chair. Chairs can be made of wood, wood can give you splinters, splinters can make you bleed, blood is blue before its oxygenated, oxygen is exhaled by trees, trees are made of wood, wood can be used to make a chair.

In general, the more connections you can make between things and the more ideas you can bring up from thinking of just one idea, the better. I think doing the above 2 things will make you better at finding patterns and seeing similarities in seemingly unlike things.


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## nonnaci (Sep 25, 2011)

Learn. And by learn, I mean to either internalize logic or relations in some form of conceptualization (be it images, analogies, stories, experiences, w/e). This depends on the nature of the information but I find that with most abstractions have strong visual analogs. Comprehension is key during this phase whereas retention of say factual information is less useful.

Some ways to check your for comprehension: Teach someone or externalize it. e.g. Blog it, post stuff in interweb forums, converse with a friend, write a book. Problem solving is a good way of putting what you absorbed into practice. I don't recommend to anyone doing say LSAT problems in one's free time but its a quick way of sharpening that logic sword. Also, old GRE reading comprehension stuff does a similar job for interpretation.


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## Persephone (Nov 14, 2009)

Do lots of problems. Math is not a spectator sport, as the saying goes. Our math prof said: "If you want to be really, really good at math, I have one thing to say to you. Do it. Lots of it."


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## bellisaurius (Jan 18, 2012)

I don't think puzzles work all that well. It's better to become more introspective, getting more in the habit of asking yourself questions like "If I do this, what will happen?", noting what does happen, and calibrating. You can do the questions on anything, be it work, school, reality television watching, etc... 

I don't know if it will help your IQ score, but it will make you a deeper person, and may help your general argumentative skills, as you learn to construct ways of explaining causes and consequences.


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## Tristan427 (Dec 9, 2011)

Cetanu said:


> Coming up to the answer for this question by yourself would be one way.


I've seen other people post the following gif, and I felt your post warranted it.


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## 22575 (May 23, 2011)

Raain said:


> By intellect I don't mean your accumulated knowledge type of intellect but your ability to solve problems quickly, do mathematics quickly and accurately, memorise things, recognise patterns, abstract reasoning, react quickly to situations and concentration.
> 
> Does the only way to improve this involve doing lots of puzzles?
> 
> if so what kind of puzzles are best, and how often or how long a day should you spend doing them?


Doing things quickly and accurately will mostly consist of practicing the same type of skill/problem. Improving your abstract reasoning is an entirely different beast which requires the acquisition of new types of knowledge. In particular, I've found mathematics and physics to be deep subjects which always bring up new material demanding novel methods of abstract thought.


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## Emerson (Mar 13, 2011)

Thinking? Taking a step back before immersing yourself in the problem?


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## Wikipedian (Jul 23, 2012)

Physical exercise is a great way of improving your memory and IQ.

Physical exercise activates a gene called BDNF which will help increase axon regeneration and neurite outgrowth.


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## bigtex1989 (Feb 7, 2011)

Actually learn how to play chess. Lots of transferable skills.


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## Persephone (Nov 14, 2009)

I didn't bother to mention what _kinds_ of math problems. In training logical problem solving, perhaps no problems are better than 1. word problems. I am worst at word problems because these often engage both your left _and_ right brain, requires you to translate the concrete to the abstract and back. Also, _theoretical_ problems are great for logical, sequential thinking. I'm taking Linear Algebra right now and we get problems like this all the time (this is actually from the midterm I took this morning!):

Is it possible to find three linearly independent vectors *u*, *v* and *w* in R5 such that A*u*=A*v*=A*w*=*0*?

What I love about math "problems" like these is that they force you to go back to axioms and definitions. You would have to recall a number of things: The nature of pivots, definition of linear independence _and linear dependence_, and be comfortable with statements _if and only if_, or _is it possible_. Many times less logical and mathematical people do things like: I tried to find an example, I failed. They are approaching the problem wrong. They are not going by axioms and definitions, but a primitive "guess and check" method. They would have failed the problem if they were unlucky and _didn't_ find an example. I find it trains logical thinking very well, as well as taking statements apart to reason rigorously.

I have a very strong Ti, but as an INTJ Ti is not a function I'm natural at, and I mostly trained it by studying logical fallacies and debate in eighth grade, but problems like these hone my reasoning skills.


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## MatsNorway (Jul 4, 2011)

bigtex1989 said:


> Actually learn how to play chess. Lots of transferable skills.


Starcraft 2 should do too then. Its called chess on crack.


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## INTJellectual (Oct 22, 2011)

Read good books like Literature, History, biography of famous people, etc. not those shallow ones that are just meant to entertain on a superficial level. And also, talk to interesting people that have so much insights to share, or to those people that have so much knowledge in other area of expertise, or to those old, wise, people that have gained wisdom thru experience.


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## whydeo (Jul 19, 2012)

I don't necessarily agree with puzzles and computer games. For me, it hasn't been particularly helpful in improving my fluid reasoning ability. I've had a friend who challenged my intelligence by saying that because he played way more computer games than I did, he is more 'street-smart' and mentally agile than I am and therefore, will be more successful than I will ever be. I believe action speaks louder (He's unemployed and relies on his parents for his livelihood; I have a house under my name, a full-time job and am pursuing a second degree). _Who's solving real problems better than the other?
_
As someone who has been severely oppressed intellectually for most of her childhood and teenage years, what has helped the most was going out into the real world and dealing with real-life experiences. Throw yourself out there where the coyotes and wolves are and you'll eventually learn to survive.

Aside from that, physics honed my spatial and abstract reasoning abilities while sports and physical activities heightened my kinesthetic awareness. Learning classical piano sharpened my memory skills while jazz improvisation quickened my spontaneous response (playing music in general improved my inner rhythm and ear training). Doing complex math improved my numerical skills while learning psychology theories helped me recognise complicated behavioral patterns. Immerse yourself in a variety of spontaneous situations, do things in an unexpected and unplanned manner, be in the company of others who live in the moment and keep up with them.

Isolated puzzles, riddles and games aren't as beneficial to an all-round useful and healthy improvement in fluid reasoning as challenging yourself in many real-world situations is.

It's analogous to increasing flexibility, agility, strength and muscle memory in piano playing so that you can play better as a piano player (I play the piano, slightly over 2 decades now). As a supporter of the 'other' school of thought, I don't believe that you should endlessly drill over Hanon or Czerny finger exercises. It's dead, impractical and irrelevant. Music isn't anything like finger exercises and we're not robots. It just doesn't work that way and it's an extremely inefficient use of time, effort and resources (However, I should add that learning scales and modes is important in recognising tonal harmony and chordal relation). You have to play *real* songs, *real* passages, *real* phrases, make mistakes, learn-unlearn-relearn techniques, only then you can become a better piano player.


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## EYENTJ (Aug 21, 2010)

1) Dual-N-Back games
2) Read everything (looking up vocabulary you do not know)


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## nakkinaama (Jun 20, 2012)

Travelling! Study how things work! Take care of yourself so that you can take care of others when the time comes! Have conversations, read books, watch documentaries, dont harm other people... Basically just free your mind from all the useless thingamajigs and see how life really goes. And try to live on your own so that youll learn independency. That part is pretty hard for me. I get too comfortable in places and get stuck...


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## .30691 (Dec 19, 2011)

Anything that will develop your philosophy, logic, visualisation, language and maths skills. Puzzle games and abstract reasoning tests will only help *maintain *a working intellectual ability. Try to develop schemas and meta-knowledge as apposed to just remembering facts and concrete processes.


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## Arabian Knight (Jun 4, 2012)

Read books, then write your own conclusions.


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## Mutatio NOmenis (Jun 22, 2009)

What I've done is made myself read a random nonfiction book every single week since I was 11. Also, read a random wikipedia article every single workday over lunch. Those are both fast ways to learn several craptons of stuff.


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## zwanglos (Jan 13, 2010)

Well, IQ tests often incorporate many problems focusing on pattern recognition and logical-progressions. Working through puzzle games on the computer or whatnot would certainly help and wouldn't hurt. Good puzzles, though. So many bad puzzle games out there.

There are many different 'kinds' of intelligence, though. A high IQ score doesn't mean you have any 'social intelligence,' for example.


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## tangosthenes (Oct 29, 2011)

Raain said:


> Yeah I was expecting someone would reply with a smart ass answer as such when creating this thread.
> 
> Honestly couldn't care less though.



You know, that's honestly not a smart-ass answer. That's a really good answer. That's the mindset you have to put yourself in. It's tough to figure out your own answers, but that's exactly what you're trying to do.

Something I would do, since your INFP, I would imagine your imagination is quite active. That's pretty much all the material you need, for now. Start off trying to direct your imagination into productive areas- it'll probably most naturally flow into philosophy or writing...do whatever you like. 

After a while of this, you're going to naturally want to grab onto more and more information to satisfy your constant diet of solving things. So then you'll read, solve puzzles, etc. on your own, because you're actually motivated to do them, and then it's history.


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## dagnytaggart (Jun 6, 2010)

Isn't it mainly genetic? You can't really improve fluid intelligence, especially not as an adult.


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