Don’t let the brain-gain gimmicks mislead you into disappointment.
13 June 2016 Aeon, “Getting smarter,” Jeffrey M. Sacks.
We would all like to be smarter, more intelligent, alert, informed, and interesting. And a whole industry has been spawned to address that longing, including brain games, drugs, subliminal messaging, and electric current brain stimulation.
But there are no shortcuts to learning or improving cognitive ability. None of these widely marketed and embraced techniques improves intelligence, although much of what they offer and of their methods is based on sound reasoning and, at some point in the future, may yield some benefits.
For now, and for the foreseeable future, the best we can do to increase our cognitive abilities is to practice, and to find enjoyment in practicing, and to exercise regularly. Using vivid imagination applications – memory techniques – can make learning more enjoyable and more sticky, but we need to apply ourselves by reading, thinking, and other forms of mental effort, over and over, in order to gain any increase in cognitive ability.
There is no substitute for consistent, disciplined effort and maintaining good health. Just like Jesus explained to those first learners who followed Him.