To want to know how to become more intelligent?

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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

There is a huge difference between Stephen Hawking and David Beckham . One academically gifted and one kinaesthetically gifted.

You see, I must be really thick, because if you asked me about the biggest difference between those two, I'd say one being dead and the other not!

what I find so impressive about intelligent people is the ability to create logical arguments

This one is relatively easy to learn how to do.

Read up on logical fallacies. There are only a few of themabout 14, I think, off the top of my headand once you understand them you will know how to avoid using any of them. It's helpful if you also know what a syllogism is, as it's a three-part construction that helps you work out if a point is true, or if it's a fallacy.

You also said, OP:

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.

I left school after O levels and in my mid thirties applied to do a masters course in the subject I've worked in for years. I have no A levels and don't have a batchelor's degree, but I was accepted onto that masters course and passed with distinction. And I'm just about to start a second masters course, in a different but related subject, nearly twenty years later. It's never too late to learn.

If reading all the time doesn't suit listen to some podcasts. The guardian audio long reads are often fascinating and give good perspective

Reading and don’t just enter an echo chamber. Read a variety of novels, non fiction literature, newspapers, magazines etc. Documentaries are great too. Visit museums and art galleries as regularly as possible. Listen to people.

You can also do level 3 and uni in later life, there’s nothing stopping you whatsoever.

Reading, absolutely. If you tend to stick with the same things then maybe try a reading challenge with prompts. I'm doing one called 'Read Harder' at the moment.

I feel quizzes and puzzles help me too, quizzes for general knowledge and puzzles just to get your brain working differently.

The Open University publish some modules of their courses online and you can do these for free.

Intelligence is a very subjective thing, there's lots of ways to be 'intelligent'. I'm sure you are already OP.

Intelligence is fairly fixed, but I don’t think you’re talking about intelligence. I think you’re talking about enhancing your skills and learning and maybe qualification (like the scarecrow in Wizard of Oz!). You sound intelligent and you have a real desire to learn. Many universities have lifelong or extramural classes full of people who just love to learn. Here’s a programme from Queen’s University (being updated) which doesn’t require entry qualifications but provides top quality learning opportunities. You might be able to find something similar locally.

www.qub.ac.uk/schools/ssesw/Study/ShortCourses/OpenLearning/Courses/

OP, to me you sound very intelligent! I've been trying to learn Spanish for years and getting nowhere but put it down to a horrible French teacher in secondary school and also having no memory for foreign languages. But I try.

I think I probably have a low IQ but I fake it! I read morning noon and night. Now I'm retired it's got a lot worse I left school at 15 with barely an exam to my name but managed to fudge it and build a career. I kept thinking I was going to get 'found out' but looking back maybe I underestimated myself and I think you are doing that too OP.

My DH is hugely intelligent and TBH I fell in love with his brain. We are equals in very many ways but he is wired differently to me intelligence-wise and even after 30+ years married I am still in awe with what his big brain lets him do. (I can't say more because it's very outing!)

My big thing is politics both at home and elsewhere in the world. I'm on Twitter and if you can cut through the dross you can read links and learn so much. I have over 2,000 followers so obviously someone reads my warblings!

This is an interesting thread.

Innumeracy by John Allen Paulos is great on maths.

Guesstimation by Lawrence Weinstein is a workbook of examples which show how by really trying you can produce good answers to interesting questions.

Some of these responses are so interesting! I knew I could count on the MN collective