People have always asked me how I could be so "smart". Why I was so good at school. They called me lucky, they said that I must have had a good childhood with early contact to math and different languages etc etc.
I, in return, always asked them why they were so successful with women and I wasn't.
None of the two questions were answered until I came here. I realized that success with women was a skill you could learn. Don't think they said. And so I did.
Now, looking back, here is an interesting thought: If I could learn how to be successful with women, why shouldn't other people be able to learn how to become smart? Sounds silly?
It's all about the fun
People are almost always good at things that are fun to them. Women weren't fun to me at all. Everything was difficult and also a little bit scary.
Now please join me for my old math class. Our teacher gave us some more exercises. Alright, what is (x+h)^5?
Of course, it's x^5+5*x^4*h+10*x^3*h^2+10*x^2*h^3+5*x*h^4+h^5
Pascals pyramide, relatively easy to solve without a calculator. Now let's take a look at my neighbor:
"**** this! I'll never get this!" *Gets out his cellphone*
Since I am a helpful Al I try to help him and draw pascals pyramide for him. Then I continue my efforts to explain this basic math to him.
Right when I am half way trough he interupts me:
"Damn, this is difficult. Do you know what's up this weekend???"
The old man
A long time ago there lived an old man in a little town. The people in this town came to him one day and asked him how he could always be so collected. And he said:
"When I pray, I pray. When I do business, I do business. When I sit, I sit. When I walk, I walk. When I run, I run..."
But the people interrupted him and said:
"That's exactly what we do, too! But what is your secret?"
And the old man repeated:
"When I pray, I pray. When I do business, I do business. When I sit, I sit. When I walk, I walk. When I run, I run..."
And the people said: "But that's what we do too!"
"No!", answered the old man, "When you pray you think about your business, when you sit, you are already standing, when you walk you run and when you run you are already there."
And when this guy in my class was trying to understand pascals pyramide, he was already thinking about his weekend activities. No wonder he wouldn't succeed!
People are successful when they really DO something. Their thoughts aren't somewhere else.
Did you ever walk arround and really concentrate on walking? Feel how your legs are moving, feel every muscle contraction? Now THAT is how you walk.
I see people walking arround all the time and I can tell that they are worrying about all kinds of stuff but they aren't even paying a little attention to their enviroment. Why worry about what to do when I arrive at the place I want to go? Why not enjoy the trip?
Hell, we waste so much time thinking what would happen and in the end it's always different than we thought and all our precalculated solutions don't work anymore.
Don't worry
Don't worry they said, and I thought: If I am not supposed to think about the future, then what do I think about?
NOTHING!
Nothing, nothing, nothing!
I remember when I was a child (maybe 7 years old) I had a "thought-time". In the evening when I went to bed I spend the last 15 minutes before going to sleep thinking about my life and my dreams. Seriously, my days were so busy that I just hadn't got time to think. I was busy playing, doing my homework, discovering new places, laughing, getting to know people.
Boredom always was our biggest enemy. We tried to kill the time. And since everything was forbidden ("Be quiet!" "Don't run arround, pay attention!") we did the only thing they couldn't forbid us: Think.
So here you go: If you have fun doing something, there is no need to think.
So if I am doing math, I am doing it. I am not somewhere else with my thoughts.
I do believe that we are usually overestimating the power of talent. Usually people who are bad at something don't even really try because their mind is somewhere else.
I hated music in school for my whole life and it was my worst subject. Then, when I discovered (more or less on accident) that it was fun, I became good at it. Unrealized talent? I don't think so.
So what happens is that when you are good at something it's fun. And if something is fun, you'll be good at it.
Same principle: If you don't like something you are not going to be good at it and if you suck at something you will not like it.
Fun -> full concentration -> being good at something -> fun
And so on. The teaching principle is usually to try to make something fun especially to children. For example, they make a game out of it or something.
Now imagine you would not work on the fun aspect but on the concentration aspect. Imagine you had enough willpower to fully dedicate yourself to something new, getting good at it and thus it becomes fun which reinforces the concentration again. An upward circle...
So this is how you become smart
I, in return, always asked them why they were so successful with women and I wasn't.
None of the two questions were answered until I came here. I realized that success with women was a skill you could learn. Don't think they said. And so I did.
Now, looking back, here is an interesting thought: If I could learn how to be successful with women, why shouldn't other people be able to learn how to become smart? Sounds silly?
It's all about the fun
People are almost always good at things that are fun to them. Women weren't fun to me at all. Everything was difficult and also a little bit scary.
Now please join me for my old math class. Our teacher gave us some more exercises. Alright, what is (x+h)^5?
Of course, it's x^5+5*x^4*h+10*x^3*h^2+10*x^2*h^3+5*x*h^4+h^5
Pascals pyramide, relatively easy to solve without a calculator. Now let's take a look at my neighbor:
"**** this! I'll never get this!" *Gets out his cellphone*
Since I am a helpful Al I try to help him and draw pascals pyramide for him. Then I continue my efforts to explain this basic math to him.
Right when I am half way trough he interupts me:
"Damn, this is difficult. Do you know what's up this weekend???"
The old man
A long time ago there lived an old man in a little town. The people in this town came to him one day and asked him how he could always be so collected. And he said:
"When I pray, I pray. When I do business, I do business. When I sit, I sit. When I walk, I walk. When I run, I run..."
But the people interrupted him and said:
"That's exactly what we do, too! But what is your secret?"
And the old man repeated:
"When I pray, I pray. When I do business, I do business. When I sit, I sit. When I walk, I walk. When I run, I run..."
And the people said: "But that's what we do too!"
"No!", answered the old man, "When you pray you think about your business, when you sit, you are already standing, when you walk you run and when you run you are already there."
And when this guy in my class was trying to understand pascals pyramide, he was already thinking about his weekend activities. No wonder he wouldn't succeed!
People are successful when they really DO something. Their thoughts aren't somewhere else.
Did you ever walk arround and really concentrate on walking? Feel how your legs are moving, feel every muscle contraction? Now THAT is how you walk.
I see people walking arround all the time and I can tell that they are worrying about all kinds of stuff but they aren't even paying a little attention to their enviroment. Why worry about what to do when I arrive at the place I want to go? Why not enjoy the trip?
Hell, we waste so much time thinking what would happen and in the end it's always different than we thought and all our precalculated solutions don't work anymore.
Don't worry
Don't worry they said, and I thought: If I am not supposed to think about the future, then what do I think about?
NOTHING!
Nothing, nothing, nothing!
I remember when I was a child (maybe 7 years old) I had a "thought-time". In the evening when I went to bed I spend the last 15 minutes before going to sleep thinking about my life and my dreams. Seriously, my days were so busy that I just hadn't got time to think. I was busy playing, doing my homework, discovering new places, laughing, getting to know people.
Boredom always was our biggest enemy. We tried to kill the time. And since everything was forbidden ("Be quiet!" "Don't run arround, pay attention!") we did the only thing they couldn't forbid us: Think.
So here you go: If you have fun doing something, there is no need to think.
So if I am doing math, I am doing it. I am not somewhere else with my thoughts.
I do believe that we are usually overestimating the power of talent. Usually people who are bad at something don't even really try because their mind is somewhere else.
I hated music in school for my whole life and it was my worst subject. Then, when I discovered (more or less on accident) that it was fun, I became good at it. Unrealized talent? I don't think so.
So what happens is that when you are good at something it's fun. And if something is fun, you'll be good at it.
Same principle: If you don't like something you are not going to be good at it and if you suck at something you will not like it.
Fun -> full concentration -> being good at something -> fun
And so on. The teaching principle is usually to try to make something fun especially to children. For example, they make a game out of it or something.
Now imagine you would not work on the fun aspect but on the concentration aspect. Imagine you had enough willpower to fully dedicate yourself to something new, getting good at it and thus it becomes fun which reinforces the concentration again. An upward circle...
So this is how you become smart
