Nicholas Bate

Mmmm

 

 

Still, after all these years.

Textures101

Somewhere In The Chaos Was A Bicycle

Textures101

HowToBeMoreIntelligent101, the first 64

1. Read staggering amounts, regularly returning to the classics both fiction and non-fiction.
2. Write your own notes of your daily learnings aiming for super concise summaries. In that way you must squeeze and reveal the essence of a subject.
3. Stay active during the day. That's not just 'go to the gym'. Stay active; you'll notice the ideas flowing so much more quickly and easily.
4. Reduce TV watching drastically. Talk, write, cook, listen to music, walk, shoot ball, hold hands....Instead.
5. Find a mentor. He/she inspires. He/she can spend some time with you. He/she will challenge you.
6. Develop other parts of the brain. Reading loads? Take up art.Writing loads? Take up the guitar. Playing in a band? Cook more simple, fresh food.
7. Write your personal manifesto. What do you believe in? What do you stand for? What are your resolutions without needing a New Year...Bonus: Zen & The Art of Cubicle Freedom.
8. Ask deeper questions and thus build your knowledge base upon which your best thinking-and intelligence-is dependent.
9. Multi subject. Read some chemistry along-side some marketing strategy. Some Cubism along-side some leadership coaching. Be amazed at how synergy comes into play, ideas spark and smartness is boosted.
10. Play with scale. Go smaller; consider the minutiae; go bigger: consider the landscape.
11. Change your environment and notice how the dulled, 'not smart' feeling will leave you.
12. Write a list of what you believe to be fundamentally true. And now ask what if everyone of those 'facts' were in fact malleable...?
13. Sit quietly on a beach for 1h with a blanket wrapped around you and watch the waves crashing. And now through boredom, through oh why? through meditative experiences will arise one or two epiphanies. Maybe some genius.
14. Sort out your music by mood and use it to change your mood; make sure there is 'I feel pretty damn smart' category. Keep it to yourself; humility allows smartness.
15. Start travelling again.
16. Admit that you make mistakes, errors and crazy decisions. But you are learning. And fast.
17. Go back to the primary source of your data more often. Read the wikipedia article. But then note and certainly read some of the sources quoted.
18. Every 45 minutes stop, stretch and ask: what is truly important at this point?
19. Create a virtual advsory team: assemble your heroes from all fields, alive, dead, imaginary and when you want inspiration, ask: what would they do?
20. Watch the World at War, the Ascent of Man and 2001, A Space Odyssey. Summarise each episode of the first two. Reflect on the third.
21. Stop the relentless interrupts to your quality thinking.
22. Go back-packing: climb high, breathe deep and take no photos. Just be there.
23. Crack algebra once and for all.
24. Read the history of the Periodic Table.
25. Review your week and intemise what could be improved for next week. Focus on when you were smart.
26. Focus on some of the other elements of intelligence apart from numeric/linguistic e.g. spatial (go shoot ball), musical (borrow a keyboard and learn some basics) and artistic (sketch with some charcoal).
27. Learn Chess and/or Go for mental stretch. And hopscotch for mind-body co-ordination.
28. Sleep until rested. Do not press snooze. Get up and stretch into activity. Fatigue causes stupidity.
29. Focus on the task for the time.
30. Work in intense pulses of application, say 90 minutes. Then take a proper break.
31. Develop your thinking: treat it as a skill.
32. Observe your thinking to refine it and get more bang per buck.
33. Use proactive thinking: what do I need to anticipate?
34. Use critical thinking: what do I need to do better?
35. Use lateral thinking: what do I need to do differently?
36. Get to grips with the subjunctive case in Spanish.
37. Listen to personal development audio books while driving between business meetings.
38. Take any major conspiracy theory and explain why it is false/accurate in 100 words.
39. Re-invent your working environment so that (1) distractions are minimised (2) the vital few are prioritised and visible (3) the trivial many look after themselves.
40. Look after your brain. Keep it oxygenated by stretching and breathing deep into the lungs. Keep it hydrated with pure water. Avoid it getting over-heated with fresh air. Avoid it getting chilled with a hat when necessary ;).
41. Start a personal development fund: put 2% of your income towards courses, books, coaching. Spend the money. Some people spend more on their car than they do on their brain.
42. Study the masters in as many fields as possible.  You can't have Einstein's brain but you can be curious about his routine. Were their things he did which boosted his intelligence? Can you copy those?Absolutely. Reference also Kurt Harden's work on studies.
43. Produce stuff. Make stuff. Get it out there. Perhaps a poster. Perhaps a post-card. Perhaps a business card. A quiz, a board-game, a new cocktail. A better burger recipe....Test your ideas in the wider world.
44. A qualification means knowledge; it does not necessarily mean wisdom. Apply your learning every day. Ringo Starr "it wasn't suddenly Sgt. Pepper. We were a working band".
45. Much school, college and work is about social conditioning. Your true, deep and on-going smartness comes when you question the most fundamental of assumptions. For your health. For your business. For your life. For your very best work.
46. Notice the foods that wipe you out, especially at work, especially in the afternoon. Eliminate them. 100% totally. Keep them for chill out days. 
47. Set up a learning team. Three people, 1h/month, every month. Bring along ten minutes of materials to teach the other two. You get smarter by teaching and in return you learn two new subjects.
48. Struggle with the problem. Don't give up. Clarify the problem. Research the problem. Then allow the problem to incubate for a while before returning to it. When you get that breakthrough you will have become smarter.
49. Write lists. Set high numbers e.g. 25 colours to access the hidden depths of your brain.
50. Memorise more. Key numbers. Key passwords. Shakespeare. Quotes: All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible. T E Lawrence
51. Just know that are smarter than you were and you can be smarter still.
52. Practise representing data in 2 by 2 matrices and graphs to get to the point.
53. Learn a meditative practice be it Tai Chi or a simple breathing meditation.
54. Eat less c**p. imagine what that corn syrup is doing to those beautifully formed neural pathways of yours.
55. Don't believe the majority of what your teachers told you about your intelligence.
56. Work at a different speed.
57. Do a psychometric such as MBTI to reveal more about your approach to life.
58. Switch off your phone in queues and watch, observe and think.
59. Mountains or Toblerone. Someone was being smart. That was a quest.Yours is a quest is too.
60. Get a set of high quality coloured pencils and use them.
61. Get that MBA off your CV and into action.
62. Use walking to overcome mental blocks.
63. Flick through your notebooks seeking inspiration.
64. Think less about qualifications and more about accelerating your real experience.

The Chevron (>) Way To Make Any Day, Every Day, Easier 21

1. Action > Talk. A decision is not a decision until you take an action. Ask: what will I do? How? By when?
2. Activity > Exercise. Exercise is great. But remaining active during the day will boost energy, decision-making and fight fatigue. Stand, walk and take the stairs at all opportunities.
3. Listen >  Talk.  Understanding is the bedrock of excellent communication. Listen. And explain back in complex situations to show/check that you have got it.
4. Process > Content. It's not just what we need to do; it's how we are going to do it. Plan content; plan process.
5. End > Start. It's easy to start, but how will it end? And what is the end?
6. Respect > Like. Business is not kindergarten; nor the country club. We're not there to be liked: that's a bonus which comes from great work leading to respect.
7. RoI > Tick. Measure by pay-of rather than urgency, ease or who is yelling. Create a master list: not just have to do but want to do. Not just commercial but personal. Not just pragmatic but dreams, too.
8. On > In. Work on your business (important and investing activities) not just in (important and urgent activities) your business. See 7.
9. Unplugged > multi-cabled. The best connection is you and their mind. Cables can seriously distract from that.
10. Horizon > desk-top. Look up; gain perspective. What's the bigger picture here? What's really important  here?
11. I/we > they. Own the problem.
12. Explicit > implicitly. Ask probing questions until you understand.
13. Purpose > package. Mastery creates passion; Passion creates brilliance. Chase your purpose rather than the perfect financial package.
14. Slower > faster. Never go faster than the speed of thought. The ability to think and think well is your super-power.
15. lighter > heavier. Let go of your baggage, your pre-conceptions and you 'if onlys'. Life will become easier.
16. Verb > noun. What are you here to do? Not just the display on your e-mail sign off.
17. 0900 > 0907. Start on time. Professionalism starts with the apparently small stuff.
18. Green > white. More vegetables and fruit in their original form and less sugar. Live longer, feel better, save money.
19. Here > there. Be here now. Be in the room, in the conversation, in the mindset.
20. 3 > 9. Keep meetings small for speed, creativity and results.
21. Kaizen > entropy. Plan-Do-Review. Improve the process to boost effectiveness, otherwise it will decay.

Bonus: You, Only Better, the book.

Andrew Munro

and the fairy tale.

David Seah

discusses intensity of work.

James Lawther

and too much of a good thing.

Mmmm