I believe that intelligence is highly adaptable; that we adapt our minds to any task by thinking in certain way and learning to learn. By using simple mental techniques I find that I can pick up broad understanding of subjects quite quickly.
These techniques will give you wider knowledge, a better ability to react to situations, think on your feet, make connections and generate ideas. I also find the more I learn about a subject the easier to is to make connections with people interested or involved in that field.
Consume - It is important to have time to think, disconnected from technology, but with the variety of digital and analogue media now available its possible to absorb vast amounts of information on every subject.
Watch the news, read articles on wikipedia about topics that pop into your head, listen to audiobooks and lecture series while traveling to work (some can be found at Berkeley, read books; fiction and non-fiction. However you like to consume information, do it. Skimming can be used to grab little bits of information from a wide variety of sources.
Think - Review ideas and stories that you’ve come across in your head, mind map out ideas or write them down. Explore ideas, look at them in detail and require your own thoughts about ideas to and how they change over time as you come across new information. I find it useful to think how someone else would react to a story or idea, putting myself in their shoes.
Connect – Make connections between certain things you’ve read, try and connect news stories with broader social trends; for example how will slipping standards in British A Level science education impact on the future British economy?
Science examination standards at UK schools have eroded so severely that the testing of problem-solving, critical thinking and the application of mathematics has almost disappeared The The Guardian
What will this decline in adaptable mental tools such as problem-solving and critical thinking do to the next generation of graduates entering the ‘knowledge economy‘? How will that impact on the British economy? Given the decline in British manufacturing, would this generation of under prepared graduates lead to a stagnation of British industry? Would the employers simply move to India or China and hire more enthusiastic, better prepared and cheaper graduates from those countries?
Bringing different ideas together and forging those connections in your mind between different subjects increases your memory of those topics. It can generate ideas you may not otherwise thought of.
