To want to know how to become more intelligent?

[ethelfleda]

This question probably makes me sound stupid to begin with!
But I revere intelligence! I’m always incredibly impressed with intelligence in other people and it’d be more important to me than improving my looks, for example. I see so many posts by intelligent women on here.
I didn’t go to university. I didn’t even stay on to complete A-Levels - something I feel a little ashamed of at times. I can’t really go back and study at this point in my life. So what small things can you recommend I do to increase my intelligence?
Please be kind to this thicko

I love more or less too!
It’s great they way they challenge statements of fact.

I think being open minded is a great thing; so long as you are not just swept along with the argument, and you are critical of it, acknowledging what its flaws are and what information or research is needed to develop it further.

I agree with others; you do sound intelligent, and interpersonal intelligence is underrated and vital.

Politicalacuityisathing
Thank you ☺️

The suggestion of going to charity shops near a Uni is genius! I love that.

I have been trying to learn Spanish as well - I have the Michel Thomas method course which is very good. I have BBC Mundo app on my phone and I was in the habit of trying to translate one headline per day but I haven’t done that for a while.

I just need to quit my job and get my toddler to sleep through and then I can spend all day learning

Given your updates I’d agree with a pp that what I think you are looking for it to develop critical thinking skills.

Read up on inductive vs deductive thinking.

People get through whole undergrad degrees without learning that not all information sources are equal!

Always keep in mind why someone is saying something eg is their income derived from promoting a certain POV.

Ignore the pps who said that IQ can’t be increased- they need to read up on modern neuroscience.

The human brain is plastic and new connections can be made throughout the life course.

Try activities which exercise your brain- chess, jigsaws, sudoku, crosswords, logic puzzles, even card games and board games with the kids are better than watching tv!

The brain also needs plenty of sleep, daily physical exercise and a good diet to function well. If you are eating less than 3 portions a week of oily fish then you should take omega supplements. Also make sure you are getting enough of all your other vitamins and minerals.

Time outside and in nature is also good for your brain.

Reading is the way to increase your knowledge,

WRT translating headlines; sometimes headlines are very dense language which can be really difficult to translate. If you are a beginner or intermediate, you are setting yourself quite a hard task!

I don't think intelligence is all it's cracked up to be! Curiosity and wisdom are more important.
^ This is very true. I like to think of myself as fairly intelligent, but I think curiosity and learning from my experiences have been much more important to my life.
That said OP, you sound very intelligent as it is. The things you've said you admire come more from confidence and practice than intelligence itself, so instead of worrying so much about being intelligent, work on building your confidence in your abilities, and reminding yourself that you aren't a thicko, you're every bit as intelligent as you want to be, you just need to get an opportunity to see that shine through.
And, as an aside to show you how little relies on intelligence, I had to get someone else to help me actually word this post because my brain stopped halfway through a sentence.

I think you sound pretty intelligent to me op!

As others have said maybe pursuing critical thinking is an avenue for you? Being intelligent isn't the same as being educated. Depending on what you want you can read more and do more to educate yourself further. Constructing background arguments and critical thinking will help you develop that knowledge into something you can discuss confidently.

Sounds like you're heading that way already! Have confidence

Have you heard of the Dunning-kruger effect?

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect

The fact you even question your intelligence means you are likely be intelligent and you come across as some interesting and curious.

I think reading views opposite to yours help shape your critical thinking is useful. I will sometimes look at very different views to mine ( like leave voters for Brexit or the daily mail in general) you will immediately start to see flaws in arguments when you disagree with a view. Asking people you know what they think about something and why is enlightening (choose carefully!)

Also Louis Theroux documentaries. He is good at probing and being curious about subjects

Curiosity and wisdom are more important
To me that is intelligence, rather than education.
Fluffymullet, someone isnt Dunning kruger because you disagree with their politics. They are dunning kruger becsuse they are over educated and cant see that they dont know enough to make an informed decision, they think they know more then the experts.
It tends to be conspiracy theorists,antivax etc Who tend to be overeducated middle classes.

I am really interested in this query. Thanks for starting the thread and for all the really helpful tips so far.

I used to be quite studious and had an unbridled thirst for knowledge in a wide variety of subjects. This was before depression and anxiety got me and then I had my DD and experienced the usual dip in cognitive function from lack of sleep and focusing on the basics of life for a while.

I really really want to get my brain back into gear but I feel my capacity for knowledge and critical thinking has reduced massively. I don’t think clearly the majority of the time and although I read quite a bit, I can’t retain a lot of information, even if I’m really interested in the subject, let alone construct a summary or debate issues raised on the spot in conversation.

Like a PP said, writing out my thoughts is easier but words just don’t come to me in conversation. I do have awful social anxiety though and I think most of my brain power is taken up with worrying. My focus is just shot.

I’m going to start writing summaries/reviews of the books I read, which are fairly balanced with fiction and non-fiction. I’m already listening to non-fiction audiobooks when I’m driving or running and I have got a copy of New Scientist magazine (one of my interests), which I will pick up when I have a break/cuppa instead of social media. I’ll also try and pick a relevant news article to read in full each day.

I suppose daily meditation would also help to calm my thoughts everyday and help my focus. But is there anything else that might help me think clearer?

@bruffin - maybe i wasnt clear in my post above. I didn't say Dunning-kruger was to do with political views, I gave that example in a different point as a good place to look at opposing views as it is so topical at the moment. It sounds like op is interested in developing those skills.

It's not to do with being over-educated either. It is about being able to recognise your own abilities and the lower your I intelligence, the more you over estimate it. Experts are generally more accurate rating thier abilities.

To me Antivaxxers and conspiracy theorists tend to mix more into mistrust of governments/authority as well as critical thinking.

Read, read and then read some more.
Reading helps you practice to formulate your thoughts into words - more so than listening to talks /
Radio or watching YouTube clips. Although these are both great ways to absorb more knowledge about things.

If you get used to reading books / articles etc that you find challenging and that make you think - you will “feel” more intelligent. In fact, you will be gaining knowledge and training your brain to think in new ways.

Look at the recent Flat earthers documentary it covers Dunning Kruger. It is very much overestimating ability to understand what your reading.
The antivax community aleays claiming they have done their "research" but show they dont actually understand the research.

Read more. Everything and anything. It's never been easier to find out new stuff.
Watch or read the news as often as possible, but don't just stick with one source as they all tend to be biased one way or another.
Watch documentaries. Someone has mentioned YouTube. There is lots of really interesting and informative content on there.

Read read read read read read read read read read read read.

Watch Ancient Aliens on TV
Become a conspiracy theorist

That will teach you a lot about stuff.

@DDIJ That sounds really unkind of your father... And since it’s something said that’s designed to be hurtful, it doesn’t actually mean it’s true. Sorry

They are dunning kruger becsuse they are over educated and cant see that they dont know enough to make an informed decision, they think they know more then the experts.
It tends to be conspiracy theorists,antivax etc Who tend to be overeducated middle classes

This is very much incorrect.

Dunning Kruger is not to do with your education levels. It is a cognitive bias caused by the fact that people who are bad at things are often bad at realising this lack of ability, because the same cognitive skills that make them bad at the task make them bad at assessing their own abilities.

Professor Dunning expressed it as follows:

the knowledge and intelligence that are required to be good at a task are often the same qualities needed to recognize that one is not good at that task—and if one lacks such knowledge and intelligence, one remains ignorant that one is not good at that task.

Furthermore, it’s not the case that conspiracy theorists tend to be over-educated middle classes. Education is actually a predictor of decreased belief in conspiracy theories:

cyberleninka.org/article/n/696780.pdf

There are of course very well educated people who are conspiracy theorists. But as a rule, the more educated the population in question is, the less belief there is in conspiracy theories.

There are of course very well educated people who are conspiracy theorists. But as a rule, the more educated the population in question is, the less belief there is in conspiracy theories.

I don't believe that at all. That's what they want you to think. It's quite clear to us clever types that conspiracies are everywhere. :)

antivax tend to be affluent and educated

That’s a very vague article - it mentions that ‘many’ anti-vax parents are well educated but doesn’t cite any actual studies or give any statistics so it’s hard to know what conclusions we can actually draw. If you can find a more legitimate study I would be interested in it because it’s obviously an anomaly. I would be interested to know why anti vaxxers don’t follow the usual conspiracy theorist ‘type’. It might be because it’s associated with that ‘whole foods earth goddess cult of the mother’ type thing which I tend to associate with the middle classes.

I think that the people around me consider me intelligent. I don’t think I have a truly natural skill or advantage that goes over and above anyone else, though. What I do have however, is tonnes of knowledge and experience. I read constantly. When I’m not reading, I’m listening to audiobooks or podcasts. For me the key to building a wider understanding of everything, is to mix up sources and types of information. With books, I read a rotating mixture of classics, informative, biographies, and fiction. It helps to then broaden your outlook overall, as you have this mesh of facts, viewpoints, other people’s experiences from across the world and time, with which to create your own opinions.

I would strongly recommend an online access course (you then don’t need A-levels for a degree), and learn how to learn. It’s a skill in itself, and the structure of academic learning is very good at teaching you how to form opinion, and how to lean on evidence and to gather information before putting your own potentially biased or ill-informed opinions out there.

Access the things that interest you, if you love looking at beautiful art, go to galleries near you. Travel whenever possible, and take in cultural activities at every opportunity. Again, every experience adds a layer of thinking and understanding to your mind. I had to meet someone recently, and chose a free public gallery instead of the coffee shop that was two minutes away. I’m not saying that makes me some kind of pillar of intelligence! The point is, that these little decisions and extra thought going into how you spend your time, where you go and who you interact with, can build you understanding and by extension your natural intelligence.

I'm not sure there is anything you can do to increase intelligence in the sense of IQ. If you cannot multiply two 4-digit numbers in your head, there is no pill or anything that can get you there (unless if they are working on something in some secret lab somewhere).

But a lot of people confuse intelligence with knowledge. And you can certainly increase knowledge.

So learn more things, and other people might think you have become smarter.

fluffymullet I had heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect actually - learned about it on a recent feature of more or less (they used Donald Trump as an example!) and learned a little more about it then. I really appreciate everyone’s responses. Have downloaded the peak app as someone suggested and will try that most days. I also need to make more of an effort to read in the evenings - even just 20 minutes where I can! I love my library and have a couple of books I’ve been meaning to carry on with. One was The Selfish Gene By Richard Dawkins which is really interesting, but hard going! I have to really concentrate on that! I’d love to learn more about Sociology too.
With regards to the translating headlines on BBC Mundo thing - I basically read the headline in Spanish and make an educated guess as to what it says... so for instance

con una pregunta: ¿Cuál dirías que es la compañía de taxis más grande del Mundo?

Came up today. I read it as ‘With a question’ what< something> that is the companies taxi more big of the world?’

Google translate says that it means

‘With a question, what would you say is the largest taxi company in the world?’

I know I wasn’t far off but it helps with Spanish grammar for sure.

I am going to look into Critical thinking too.
Thank you so much all

Languages are a tricky one. My dh is brilliant at directions and generally knows which way is north whatever the situation. But his brain really struggles with foreign languages and it's not for want of trying. I'm the reverse.
We both use kind of decoding skills to do the thing we are good at.