Great article on SciAm by Andrea Kuszewski. She says we can improve our intelligence by:
- Seeking novelty
“Always look to new activities to engage your mind—expand your cognitive horizons. Learn an instrument. Take an art class. Go to a museum. Read about a new area of science. Be a knowledge junkie.”
- Challenging yourself
“In order to keep your brain making new connections and keeping them active, you need to keep moving on to another challenging activity as soon as you reach the point of mastery in the one you are engaging in.”
- Thinking creatively
“Creative cognition involves divergent thinking, making remote associations between ideas, switching back and forth between conventional and unconventional thinking, and generating original, novel ideas that are also appropriate to the activity you are doing.”
- Doing things the hard way
“There are times when using technology is warranted and necessary. But there are times when it’s better to say no to shortcuts and use your brain, as long as you can afford the luxury of time and energy.”
- Networking
“Being in the presence of other people who may be outside of your immediate field gives you opportunities to see problems from a new perspective, or offer insight in ways that you had never thought of before.”
Go read it.