How to develop intelligence: a detailed guide for those who want to become smarter

Is it possible to develop intelligence?

The human brain is a complex system of nerve cells (neurons). Information from one neuron to another is transmitted through chemical transmitters - neurotransmitters (in particular, endorphins, dopamine, etc.). There is an erroneous assertion that only a small part of the human brain is involved in the functioning of the human brain.

In reality, everyone's brain always works fully, but this does not mean that the limit has been reached and the brain cannot be developed. A person engaged in self-development develops new neurons and new connections between them - this will be the development of intelligence.

Modern science says that a person’s thinking abilities are 50% dependent on the genetic factor, that is, half of the potential of intelligence is laid down by parents - this is a type of character, a set of neurons, neurotransmitters. At the age of 5, a child has already formed a set of neurons and connections between them, most of which will remain with him for life. And then a lot depends on how his parents develop him, and when he grows up, on himself.

The goal of many people who want to become successful is to fully realize their inherent abilities and their potential. And the surest way to achieve this goal is to never stop working on improving your intelligence. Anyone who actively works to develop their thinking abilities will be able to radically change themselves intellectually within a year.

So how can you get your brain to work at its full potential? Indeed, in our world, where competition reigns, it is not the strongest who wins, but the most intelligent, enterprising and resourceful.

Improving your mental abilities is not a problem - if only you have the desire and patience. Of course, we are unlikely to become the next Einstein, Tesla, Edison or Elon Musk - these are exceptional personalities-nuggets. But, having engaged in self-development, we will be convinced that our brain has such capabilities that we did not even suspect.

Of course, many people would like to become a genius easily and quickly, without spending much effort. Now there are many books on the development of thinking abilities, for example Stanislav Muller’s “Become a Genius! Secrets of Super Thinking" from the series "Yourself a Psychologist", but most people are too lazy to even read them.

For them, the solution would be a magic pill like the one that, by chance, went to the main character of the American film “Dark Areas” (2011) starring Bradley Cooper. Thanks to this pill, the brain of a failed New York writer begins to work with incredible power, and the depressed hero turns into a brilliant stock player with great prospects. But without a pill he is nothing. In addition, it turned out that the wonderful pills that improve brain function have serious side effects.

Although the hero finds a way out of the difficult situation in which he finds himself, it is better for us to use common sense and engage in exercises to develop the intellect. For the brain to work, it needs to be loaded, but the exercises should be interesting and not monotonous. Otherwise, we will subconsciously avoid them by procrastinating. And exercise will only give results when it becomes a habit.

What is intelligence

The concept of “intelligence” is heard by everyone, but few understand what it really means. General erudition, the ability to think logically or solve mathematical problems are often mistaken for intelligence. In fact, the concept of “intelligence” is much broader.

Intelligence is a mental function responsible for a person’s adaptation to the world around him. It consists of several components that form a single complex system.

It is the development of intelligence that determines how successful a person will be in life. You can be a walking encyclopedia, but be completely unable to apply your knowledge in practice. But with average abilities you can achieve simply incredible results.

More than 100 cool lessons, tests and exercises for brain development

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Intelligence is closely related to cognitive functions - perception, attention, thinking, speech. With the help of them, he receives “food”, which he subsequently processes and uses to build effective strategies and implement them.

According to recent studies, 50% of human intelligence is determined by genes. This means that we have the second 50% that we can actively influence. Our task is to get the maximum out of them. And for this you need to constantly develop. Anyone who firmly grasps this truth now, in a year will be able to achieve such intellectual heights that he has never even dreamed of.

What factors influence a person's mental abilities?

The level of intelligence can vary significantly among different people. Among us there are intellectuals, slow-witted people, people with average abilities and those who are commonly called mentally retarded. But why are people so different mentally?

Various studies have shown that the formation of human mental abilities is influenced primarily by genetic factors. Upbringing, environmental influences and random external influences play a much smaller role.

However, the external environment also has a certain significance for the formation of intelligence. These are factors such as the standard of living of the family, the level of education of parents, the nature of upbringing, the availability of school education for children (in American studies, students from good urban schools turned out to be more intellectual than students from modest rural schools). Research has even established the influence of such individual factors as annual family income, the size of the house and its cost, the relationship between parents, etc.

The role of nutrition cannot be ruled out. The brain is a rather voracious structure, and a lack of nutrients can lead to a decrease in its ability to process information.

Types of intelligence

There are many different classifications of intelligence. The most famous one belongs to the American psychologist Howard Gardner. He identified 8 types of intelligence:

• spatial,
• bodily-kinesthetic,
• musical,
• linguistic,
• logical-mathematical,
• interpersonal,
• intrapersonal,
• naturalistic.

According to Gardner's theory, everyone has a dominant intelligence that determines what a person can be successful at. Based on this, standard IQ tests are untenable, since they only measure the level of logical-mathematical intelligence.

Another classification divides intelligence into 4 components:

1. Mental intelligence is responsible for rational thinking. It is applicable wherever the laws of logic apply.
2. Physical or bodily intelligence controls processes associated with controlling the body.
3. Emotional intelligence deals with emotions and interpersonal interactions.
4. Spiritual intelligence is associated with the subconscious, intuition, and ethical categories.

All components of intelligence require development. If you pay attention to only one thing, you will not achieve harmony. Some important areas of life will be limping.

Recommendations for developing intelligence

It is not difficult to develop your mental abilities. It is enough to devote 20–30 minutes a day to this process. Of course, you shouldn’t hope for sky-high results. Our recommendations and exercises will not make you a genius like Einstein or Newton. But they will help you realize your potential, increase your efficiency, and generally make your life more productive.

Read more

Reading is perhaps the best way to develop intelligence. By reading good literature, we broaden our horizons, learn to think logically, develop imagination and imaginative thinking. By good literature, first of all, I mean artistic classics, biographies of great people, books on history, philosophy, and scientific works.

Make a list of books you want to read and get started. 30 books a year is the minimum required to keep your brain in good shape. If you get more - great!

Expand your horizons

We have already found out that there is no useless knowledge. The more of them in your luggage, the more neural connections are formed in your brain. So always look for opportunities to learn something new.

Read popular science articles, watch educational programs, take an interest in current events in the world. And be sure to reflect on what you learn, express your opinion, discuss with friends. Strive to become a true polymath. This will not only help you develop your intelligence, but will also make communication with you valuable and interesting.

Dig Deeper

It is very important to develop not only in breadth, but also in depth. Look for opportunities to deepen and enrich your existing knowledge. You must have an area that you know inside and out. It's best if this is your profession.

If in the process of expanding our horizons we form new neural circuits, then, while working to deepen our knowledge, we establish connections between existing neural circuits. As a result, all mental processes associated with a specific activity begin to proceed faster. Some of them move to the unconscious level, freeing our consciousness. At this stage, intuition comes into play.

Remember how Dmitry Mendeleev discovered his famous table. He studied the properties of elements for many years, thought a lot and worked on the problem. As a result, his brain did the finishing touches for him, giving him a brilliant idea in a dream.

Get creative

Even if you have never held brushes in your hands and a bear stepped on your ear, this is not a reason to give up creativity. Your task is not to create world masterpieces, but to relieve your brain. Constantly engaged in mental work, our thinking becomes dull and begins to feel hungry for simple and understandable stimuli.

Drawing, modeling, sewing, music - choose an activity that you like. Give it at least a couple of hours a week. This is enough to give the brain a break from the same type of work.

Train your memory

Memory and intelligence are two closely related functions of the brain. The effectiveness of all intellectual processes depends on how well you are able to remember new information.

To train your memory, you can learn poems, songs, monologues. Various simulators and applications are also great - we will tell you about them towards the end of the article.

Learn to think positively

Life doesn't always go swimmingly. Some circumstances can seriously unsettle us. But you remember why we need intelligence in the first place? To adapt to the surrounding world. This means that he must be flexible and help us get out of difficult situations.

And our task is not to interfere with him in this. Stop yourself from being discouraged and giving up, learn to trust yourself and believe in your strength. This will give a powerful impetus to the development of your intellect and greatly increase motivation. Think of every challenge as a chance to improve.

Communicate more

Man is a social being. All brain functions are designed for social interaction. Therefore, communication is very important for intellectual development. For interlocutors, choose people who are erudite, diversified, and have superior mental abilities.

By interacting with such people, you will gravitate towards them and adopt useful thinking habits and patterns. And also - learn something new every day and expand your horizons. And remember: high-quality communication does not mean idle chatter and spoiling your mutual friends, but the discussion of some important issues within the framework of joint activities.

A healthy lifestyle is important

Exercising has a positive effect on brain function, and healthy and not too short sleep also increases productivity (however, “oversleeping” can be even more harmful than not getting enough sleep). It is important to approach alcohol consumption wisely - in small quantities it helps you relax and communicate more freely - as mentioned above, communication with other people is good for the brain. But excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages (like smoking) causes obvious harm to the body. In addition, the brain needs proper nutrition to function most efficiently. The body can get the required amount of nutrients only with a balanced diet - a person should eat fruits, vegetables, fish and meat.

Exercises to develop intelligence

How about giving your mind a workout right now? I have prepared several exercises and games to develop intelligence.

Logic problems

Logic problems will make your brain work hard. Open a database with questions about the game “What? Where? When?”, choose a package of questions and plunge headlong into the process. I warn you - the questions are quite difficult, especially for beginners.

Therefore, to begin with, choose a package designed for schoolchildren. To give you an idea of ​​what the questions are, here's an example.

The writer Boris Stern once said that the first book he read was a science fiction novel with three failed murder attempts and one successful one. What is this book?

This is a simple question, try to answer it yourself. You will find the answer at the end of the article. Just don't peek!

Mathematical examples

Buy or download a math problem book and solve examples from there from time to time. Try to calculate simple problems in your head, and solve more difficult ones in writing for a while.

Of course, some may find this boring and tedious. Mathematical problems with tricks were invented especially for such people. At first glance, they seem simple and uncomplicated. But the answer that seemed obvious most often turns out to be wrong. I’ll give an example from my favorite book “Puzzles of Professor Puzzles” by Mikhail Gershenzon.

One day a snail started traveling along a high wall. The wall was 10 meters high. During the day, the snail crawled up 3 meters, and during the night moved back 2 meters. How many days did it take the snail to get to the top of the wall?

What do most people do when they try to solve this problem? Calculate how many meters the snail crawls per day (3 - 2 = 1), and divide the height of the wall by this number (10 / 1 = 10). And they get the wrong answer. The correct answer is 8 days. And why, you yourself try to explain in the comments to the article. Let's check how your intellect works now.

Essays

We've done some math, now let's imagine that we're in a Russian language lesson. Write an essay on one of the given topics.

1. What superpower would you like to have and why.
2. What will you do if you find out that the world is going to end in a month?
3. Which cartoon character would you like to be like?
4. Imagine winning a million dollars in the lottery. What will you spend the money on?
5. Which great person of the past would you like to meet? Describe the meeting.

In fact, you can write on absolutely any topic. The very process of putting thoughts into material form has a beneficial effect on the intellect. You learn to think consistently, highlight the main thing and cut off the unimportant. Try not just to write randomly, but to create text that would be interesting to read. Look, you’ll master the profession of a copywriter.

Meditation exercises

Meditation will help you bring order to your head and get rid of obstacles that hinder the development of your intellect. You can find many meditation techniques on the Internet, I advise you to try several and choose the one that suits you best.

And I will describe to you my favorite exercise, which combines meditation and autogenic training.

Imagine that you were able to look into your skull and see your brain. Look at it from all sides, look at every curve. Now imagine that you begin to massage it with imaginary fingers. First the outer layer, then deeper and deeper.

Massaging movements relax your brain and fill it with pleasant warmth. If extraneous thoughts arise, do not pay attention to them. They come and go like waves on the surface of the ocean. When you reach the peak of relaxation, stay in this state. Let your brain rest from the endless bustle and stress.

Useful literature

Reading books in itself develops the brain. And if these are books about intelligence, then the effect will be simply “Wow!” If our recommendations and exercises weren’t enough for you and you’re thinking about how to further develop yourself intellectually, here’s a list of good books:

• “Brain Plasticity” Norman Doidge
• “Six Thinking Hats” Edward de Bono
• “Brain rules. What you and your children should know about the brain" John Medina
• “Japanese system for the development of intelligence and memory” Ryuta Kawashima
• “Where Intelligence Is Born” John Duncan

Find a more complete selection in our article “Books on the development of intelligence.”

Online services for the development of intelligence

Finally, I want to share with you my favorite sites and applications with simulators for developing intelligence. I hope you find a use for them.

Vikium

The Vikium service includes more than 40 brain development simulators. All of them are quite simple, so you can easily fit training into your daily schedule. An individual program is compiled based on the results of testing, which each user undergoes before starting training.

Wikium is suitable for all ages. It will help your child prepare for school and improve his attentiveness. With the help of it, teenagers and adults will be able to increase their productivity, reduce the number of mistakes during work and study, and keep their brain in good shape. For older people, training will be an excellent prevention of age-related changes in the brain.

The service also has very interesting courses. For example, the Sherlock Thinking course, where you will be taught how to draw logical conclusions, recognize deception and think critically. Or the Brain Detoxification course, where you can clear your mind of destructive thoughts and attitudes.

4Brain

4Brain is a resource that contains training courses in a variety of areas: from financial literacy to acting. As part of our work on developing intelligence, you and I will be interested in several courses.

Free:

• Emotional intellect
• Critical thinking
• Making decisions

Paid:

• Quick Read
• Mnemonics
• Cognitive science

Bitreynik

On Bitreynik you can train your intellect separately, or you can choose a program to develop several functions at once: perception, memory, thinking, attention. The simulators and games are based on the achievements of cognitive psychology. Daily exercise will help you form new neural connections in your brain.

The developers promise the first results within 20 days, provided that you exercise for 10–20 minutes a day.

BrainApps

On the BrainApps service you will find as many as 52 simulators. There are also a bunch of interesting tests, including ones to determine IQ. The tasks deserve special attention. Among them are logical, mathematical, geometric, chess, erudition problems, puzzles... Most of them are available for free.

If you decide to opt for this service, I advise you to try the following simulators:

• Fruit mathematics
• Letters and numbers
• Visual geometry
• Anagrams
• Geometric switching

Here, just like on Vikium, in addition to simulators, there are ready-made courses in various areas: from memory development to learning English. I recommend the Emotional Intelligence course to you - it is interesting, rich and original.

The brain needs intellectual challenges

By solving complex problems, such as learning a new language, a field of mathematics, or mastering an unfamiliar musical instrument, the brain becomes more plastic and flexible. According to Denton, one of the win-win options is to study various areas of mathematics - this science opens up wide opportunities for brain development. Mathematics classes allow you to train logical, numerical and visual abstract thinking, while simultaneously improving your connexion skills.

Steve Denton