Mind Performance Hacks — Tips & Tools for Overclocking Your Brain
reviewed by Harry {doc} Babad
Author: Ron Hale-Evans OÕReilly Media http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mindperfhks/#top English Language Paperback Released: First Edition February 1, 2006 Pages: 330 $25 USD, $35 CAD, Ŗ17.50 GBP, 17Û Euro ISBN: 0596101538 Audience — The book highlights techniques for improving memory, problem solving, doing mathematics and enhancing your word skills. If you need help with these and other memory related areas, this is the book for you. Major Strengths — As one recent reviewer noted by ŌJust about everyone should be able to take away something positive from this book. Good preparation for exams such as GMAT and SATs. Also, good tips for staying sharp into old ageĶ Weakness — ThereÕs so much I can accomplish with these mind hack and so few years to do so Where appropriate the instructions in the book was tested on a 1 GHz dual processor PowerPC G4 Macintosh with 2 GB DDR SDRAM running under OS X 10.4.7 Product and company names and logos in this review may be registered trademarks of their respective companies. |
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PublisherÕs Overview — ŌMind Performance Hacks provides real-life tips and tools for overclocking your brain and becoming a better thinker. In the increasingly frenetic pace of today's information economy, managing your life requires hacking your brain. With this book, you'll cut through the clutter and tune up your brain intentionally, safely, and productively.Ķ
You can stay up-to-date on mind hacking at the authors website the Mentat Wiki, especially http://www.ludism.org/mentat/MindPerformanceHacks.
Review Introduction
Like most of you, I learned the spectrum by memorizing ROYGBIV and what do to change the clock between summer to winter (Spring Forward - Fall Back). I also knew that these little tricks were called mnemonics, but not that they were mind hacks. See Memory, Book Chapter 1).
I managed to pass my doctoral exams at the U of I by studying 2-3 hours on and sort of controlled cat napping for a half hour or so; something my friend thought was nuts. [I did pass the exam there fore earned the {doc} in my byline. What I did not know was that I had re-invented a mind hack, which the author discusses as Sound Your Brain with Onar (Hack 28, Pages 107-110).
I now also know why either during a brief stint in amateur theatre or when presenting technical papers at symposia, did I always do a better job when I had a case of butterflies.
On the other hand, impressed by some folks abilities to make contact. They only needed to spend a few minutes in a crowd chatting with people and then they could remember not only their names (and faces) but also individual things they talked about. You bet I knew this was a skill that I needed, needed desperately. [Such memory feats are mind hacks.] After all, I could not remember the names of my students when I was a teaching assistant. This, despite the fact that I easily memorized hundreds of (inventor) name-reactions in my chosen field, organic chemistry, remembering peoples names remained impossible.
I also, were we not wearing badges at most of my jobs, could not remember most of many more casual co-workers names. I wonÕt describe the pain from failing the National Management AssociationÕs course Names and Faces three times. Suffice it so say, the last time, the instructor told me Kid you are genetically impaired. [It now, according to some studies, turns out I and about 5+% of humanity are, at least with respect to tying names and faces together. [So, IÕve become a believer!]
When I read the publisher description about Ron Hale-EvansÕ book Mind Performance Hacks, I jumped at a chance to review it. After all, perhaps with a little help I could capture some of those proverbial smartness pills I could use to make my aging brain work better. After all having turned seventy is no excuse to stop learning.
The Book Itself
As the publisher notes: You're smart. This book can make you smarter. Mind Performance Hacks provides seventy-five hacks, real-life tips and tools, for becoming a better thinker. According to the author, in the increasingly frenetic pace of today's information economy, managing your life requires hacking your brain. Picking out and practicing some of the tools in this book, will allow you to cut through the clutter and tune up your brain — intentionally, safely, and productively.
Underlying many parts of the book is the idea that ŌThinking logically is something we all can do. We find ourselves so often taken in by fallacious arguments, though. How can we identify them in others' arguments and our own thought?Ķ (From The Mentat Wiki)
For ease of understanding and some logical theme, but counter intuitively to me, the hacks themselves are divided into eight slightly overlapping by well cross referenced chapters:
1. Memory — remembering information, and doing away with post-It notes
2. Information Processing — maximize your ability to process data and minimize inattention.
3. Creativity — Learn to be comfortable no mater what the mental challenge, and conquer that challenge.
4. Mental Math — Learn the basic hacks to do mental math and perhaps win a few bar bets.
5. Decision Making — Making decisions with limited data by in part by separating out the low-priority data (noise, chaff) from whatÕs important.
6. Communication — Duh, did I really say that? Get your ideas across in the manner best suited to both your needs and those of your audience. (At times, itÕs OK to be abstruse.)
7. Clarity — dealing with the stuff, like your emotions that sometimes get in the way of clear thinking. Learn to recognize your preconceptions and entrapping paradigms and step beyond them.
8. Mental Fitness — Keep your brain strong and flexible no mater what your age.
In addition, there is a good but not exhaustive index. ThatÕs because I like my indices to be almost hypertext like in connectivity, something publishers canÕt yet seem to capture.
Why counter intuitively to me? — Enhancing Creativity, focusing decision-making and communicating effectively and with clarity are stronger drivers than the focus of chapter 1,2 and 4. Read on, my needs may not be yours.
Grounded, for the most part, in current research and theory, Mind Performance Hacks is filled with life hacks that can be immediately applied by you. The author offers practical solutions that teach you to:
- Use mnemonic tricks to remember numbers, names, dates, and other flotsam you need to recall
- Put down your calculator and perform complex math in your head, with your fingers, or on the back of a napkin
- Spark your creativity with innovative brainstorming methods
- Use effective systems to capture new ideas before they get away
- Communicate in creative new ways-even using artificial languages
- Make better decisions by foreseeing problems and finding counter intuitive by effective solutions
- Improve your mental fitness with cool tricks and games
I, in just a month or two, worked with the book and measurably succeeded in some of these focal areas, but have a long way to go in the others — again perhaps that genetic defect, a lack of motivation or a senior moment. However, donÕt let my limitations stop you from succeeding in areas of my weakness.
While the Ron Hale-Evans first book Mind Hacks showed you how your brain works, Mind Performance Hacks shows you how to make your brain work better – Pick a hack or seven and practice. [IÕve not yet read Mind Hacks but itÕs on my list.]
Ron offers 75 memory tricks, mental math shortcuts, aids to creativity and clarity, and tips for improving mental fitness, drawing on cognitive theory and grounded in practical application.
As S Gardner (Fair Lawn, NJ) on Amazon.com noted: ŌThis book is unusual, it groups useful techniques and tools for creative thinking into one short guide. Although (some of) the techniques outlined may be simple, they are highly effective.
ŌThe writing style is informative without being patronizing. I read this book cover to cover in four sessions; it was as interesting to read as most fiction.Ķ
Folks, it took me longer to read the book, but then IÕd continually get trapped — decide to practice a hack for a while until I at least understood it will enough to be comfortable working with it. Notice, I said working with, not mastering it!
I got completely hooked on the cited references and took many a trip to the read the materials referenced in the books extensive citations. [Robert, good macC editor-in-chief; thatÕs why this review was a month late — I was having too much fun.]
As other readers have noted, Ron Hale-Evans provides in-depth references to his source material (by individual hack) as well as providing references for further and more detailed study of the topics covered. Although referenced information I studied seduced me for a while, you donÕt need to go beyond the bookÕs details to make a selection of useful (to you) hacks to learn!
Hacks That Turned Me On
Map Your Mind (Hack 16) struck a responsive chord in me. Despite its similarity to the concepts in mind mapping software, a bit of which I played with, this hack was more open and unconstrained. The concept revolves around collecting and connecting related ideas and thus reveals patterns that stimulate new thought as well as contradictions to be resolved. Mind mapping software, at its best, is constrained by not only its programming but also by the need to interact with the computer interface. Paper and pencil have no such inherent limitations.
In SCAMPER For Ideas (Hack 22), you learn how to apply old ideas to extend the min new directions. SCAMPER is an acronym for: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate and Reverse. Not the easiest hack to learn, but one that is capable or wrenching you thought beyond that of the intellectual and paradigm associated blinders we all wear.
The section on creativity making, fascinated me, as did some of the materials in the section on decision-making. After all, I am a graduate of endless hours of brainstorming, a practitioner of decision analysis, and a veteran various exercises in quality management. The role of these tools is to stretch your mental horizons and to get you thinking outside the box. IÕll leave reading that material to you, try it youÕll be surprised at the rewards.
Hale-Evans encourages the reader to develop their inductive reasoning skills (especially in Hack 48 - DonÕt OverthinkIt), which is something we could all use. He also includes tips on "mental fitness" - how to get your brain warmed up and ready to process information.
Then there was this boss that always put me into panic-mode whenever he called on me to come to his office. Therefore, I especially liked the tools in Hack 58, Avoid Cognitive Distortions. Oh, nothing bad ever happened at these meeting butÉ
Other hacks include ways to improve the effectiveness >of your mental perception by changing your lifestyle, such as Hack #69 - Don't Neglect the Obvious: Sleep, Nutrition, and Exercise and Hack #71 - Navigate around the Post-Lunch Dip. Simple ways you can avoid mental pitfalls.
Enough! Perhaps my biggest surprise when reading this book, I was delighted to learn that I had, unknowingly and probably inefficiently, adopted some of the hacks the author so effectively elucidates.
Discomforts
Starting the Book with Memory Tricks — The tricks to improve memory may have helped thousands of people, but for me they seem to be too much trouble. After all, I keep my brain on my hard drive or in a collection of notes. As other have surly noted, such trick (Hacks 1-12) always seemed to be more work than they're worth to me. However, they may be just what you need.
Games — The benefits of playing board games (Hack 67) appear to be understated and my favorite game backgammon was omitted. In the opposite manner, I was not convinced that first person shooters (video games) serve as useful a function as the author describes (Hack 68).
In Closing
With nothing but your brain or perhaps a pen and paper you can learn how to remember where you put your glasses, learn your emotional ABCs and how they help or get in your way, reduce the clutter in your mind, sharpen your decision-making skills, and turn stage fright into a strategy for success [Hack 54]. You can learn tricks to master all this and more from Mind Performance Hacks.
I empathized and therefore concentrated on cognitive functions associated with decision-making, communications and parallel associated issues of clarity (Chapters 5-7). Your goals may to enhance your memory, better process complex information or doing mental mathematics. Whatever your focus, you will find this book valuable and useful.
The underlying science behind these Hacks has not been fully explored, according to the books author, but as knowledge about them expands that too will be added to the Mentat Wiki.
I expect that you like I, will return to this book from time-to-time to further enhance your mental abilities or perhaps just to keep the ones you learn and use sharpened and well honed. Rating 4.5 macCs
Author BIOs
Ron Hale-Evans, game designer and founder of theMentat Wiki, picks
up where the more theoretical Mind Hacks left off, and provides a toolkit for improving cognitive function. His broad
interests include: Ōmagick; Esperanto
and other constructed languages; dreams and dreamwork; writing; computing (including programming); science fiction; inherently bogus religions; the I
Ching and Tarot; hypertext and interactive fiction; SCUBA;
juggling; the Voynich Manuscript; kids; Nomic, the self-modifying metagame; nanotechnology,
becoming transhuman/posthuman, and cryonics; mnemotechnics (the
study of how to remember better) and "lightning math." He is training
to become a Mentat; and involved with Ōrecreational math; memetics (the study
of infectious ideas); board games, card games, and role-playing games; and
Hermann Hesse's Glass
Bead Game.Ķ
