MindHacks.Org

Remembering names can be a tricky task. This is evidently true when the social circle of a person gets bigger by interacting with people, or there are simply too many names in common for one to remember. One of the simplest ways to remember names is to pay close attention when a name is being introduced. It will be beneficial for one to repeat the name over and over again for a few times to lock the memory firmly in the human brain. If one forgets, simply ask for the name from that person again and repeat the steps.

There are times when verbalized repeating of names is just inadequate enough to remember. Do ask for a name card from the person or write down the name on a piece of paper three times. This method is to memorize names by visualizing pictures. It must be done as soon as possible after meeting the person.

One of the fascinating methods is to remember the names of persons by drawing a connection with the person's hobby or employment. For example, John the nurse, Mary the butcher, Joan the chef etc. It will help tremendously in reinforcing memory.

Writing down names, by far, is one of the most effective methods of remembering names, especially in a social gathering. It is an extremely successful method that does not require a lot of effort from a person. All one needs is a personal diary/notebook, pen and a name card holder. Using mnemonic devices and strategies can help in boosting memory and expanding one's mind capacity in remembering additional information.

It pays to connect names with common words that can help one to form a distinctive linkage. For example, Cherie for cherry, Bill for pills, Candace for candy etc. This will significantly enhance a person's ability to remember people's names better.

Forgetting a person's name not only embarrass but will make one cringe standing next to the person and drawing a blank look on the face. Many business plans, romantic dates and even friendships foiled because of the inability to recall names. Thus, such mistakes in a face-to -face situation can set one apart. Single syllable American names, for example, Bill, Jack, Ken, can cause confusion as these names can get blended together in the brains and easily be dismissed.

In a summary, there are tricks in remembering names. In fact, mastering just one or two tricks is already proficient enough to handle most names in one's memory capacity. The problem is that most people tend to be over immersed in themselves when names are being introduced to them. Either one is too obsessed with setting a favorable first impression or simply not paying attention at that moment. When one first hear a new name, he or she will be too emotionally or visually involved in the new person, thinking that this may help in remembering the person's name better. However, this is not true. A person's mind floats away at that crucial moment will find it extremely difficult to recall the name even seconds later. Therefore, it pays to master the tricks to safeguard one's interests.

The modern world is horrible for focusing on a task. There are a million distractions all fighting for your attention, and all seem to be important. The ability to concentrate is more important now than it has ever been in the past, and yet we are finding it harder than ever to stay focused. So are you wondering how to improve concentration? Read on.

Have a Focus Phrase

This is simple: any time you feel yourself drifting, have a phrase that says “get back to work.” Mine is simple “Focus on your work.” but others might prefer something simpler, like “Be here.” Whatever your phrase is, associate it with getting your task done.

Train Yourself not to be Distracted

Think of your distraction as a game, or a hurdle to jump. Try training for it. go to a crowded, distracting place like a coffee shop and work on some simple, unimportant tasks. Reward yourself with coffee when you stay focused, and generously to the tip jar when you don’t. That way, you have both the carrot and the stick.

Isolate yourself

When you need to get real work done, however, your best bet is to find an environment you feel extremely comfortable in and cut yourself off from the world. This isn’t the office, unfortunately; cubicles and offices are notoriously bad for getting real work done. If you can’t cut yourself off physically, try listening to music.

Have Work Music

Play music when you work, preferably the same thing every time. Maybe make a playlist. Just make sure that the music is mostly lyric-less, as vocals will put your mind to work listening to them. Also find something that is fairly repetitive, so your mind doesn’t have to work to find patterns. I personally like Brian Eno’s “Music for Airports.”

Give Yourself a Break

A while back, a simple productivity technique emerged. It isn’t novel, but it is catchy, and it is effective. Introducing the Pomorodo technique. Named after those small tomato-shaped timers, the Pomodoro technique take advantage of structured breaks. This is the technique:

1. Set a timer for 25 minutes
2. Work vigorously for those 25 minutes
3. Write an X somewhere you will remember
4. Take a 5 minute break
5. Repeat until you have 4 X’s, then take a 15-20 minute break.

This pattern gets your mind into the habit of only getting distracted when you let it, and turns focusing into a bit of a game. Give it try, and you’ll be surprised how effective this simple technique is.

Reward yourself

If you successfully concentrate, then give yourself a treat. Otherwise, nothing. This is particularly easy if you are using the Pomodoro technique. Say you work for 7 hours a day. You could expect 10 or so Pomorodo X’s, so if you reach your goal, give yourself a treat. If it’s particualarly important, punish yourself for not making it. You get to choose.

If you try these techniques, you should be able to get your wandering, distracted mind under control in no time. Give a few try, and you will be happy with the results.

Here is a most heard slogan given by students is “I can't concentrate as my mind diverge when I try to study." As we came to hear from frequent college students that they have lack of concentration and their minds go in other world of fantasy while studying. This lack of concentration is mostly found only during studies whereas they easily concentrate on other types of chore like: playing your piano or guitar, studying any romantic novels, or in any movie. In these types of activities we have our full concentration.

Sometimes your thoughts are scattered, and your mind is clashing from one thing to another. At that point you need to concentrate on your weak point and overcome them. Here are points to overcome your drawbacks.

• Learning mental self regulation.
• Arranging factors that you can immediately control.

Training Your Wandering Mind: Learning Mental Self-Regulation for Improved Concentration

The great skill to concentrate is a learning point. It is necessary to have enough practice whether it is about dancing, writing and typing. Do not distract these plans with medicine. For example, when you are having pain you take a medicine for relief; it acts on the body without any harm.

Concentration procedures require practice. Apparently you will notice a great change in your concentration within six to seven weeks and you surely love the way of your concentration. You should practice the following techniques as below:

• Be here now.
• The spider technique.
• Worry time.

If these plans are not working on your mind then you can choose other mental tasks of concentration, try to use them for two-three days if you find any improvement than use another valuable concentrations.

Be Here Now

This acutely simple plan is apparently the most persuasive. When you observe your thoughts wandering in off path, just say to yourself “Be here now” then blandly come back to your task. Gradually do this hundreds of times a week. Afterwards you will find a gradual decrease in divergence in some days. Be patient in your chore and keep at it, and soon you'll see some improvement in your concentration problems.

The Spider Technique

Here is another plan that sounds cleverly simple and skillful. But it is the base for concentration because it helps you to look after your concentration and not give it in drawn abilities. Here is an example which helps you to concentrate on your task: “if someone enters your room, calm your mind and do not indulge yourself with them, keep doing what you are upto.” In that way you will not lose your concentration.

Worry or Think Time

Manage your chore with some important points do not overcome your mind with lots of work which disturb your mind, and that destructive points must be keep aside.
Main points to get on are:

• Set a specific time each day for your time.
• Let the thought go, perhaps with "Be here now".
• When you become aware of a distracting thought, remind yourself that you have a special time to think about them.

Diana Sawyer, a famous TV newscaster, was asked about the secret of her success and in reply she said that the one thing that she had learnt in her life is that there is no surrogate of paying concentration.

Here are five points through which you can FOCUS on your work regardless of the place where you are sitting or working.

F=Five More Rules to Improve your Concentration

The world consists of two kinds of people one those who work under frustration and the others are those who want to work under frustration. But for the time being we will consider that you are stuck in the middle of a work and you want to give it up. At that time, think only about one thing that just 5 more whether it is 5 more pages of a novel or a book, or 5 more problems of mathematics or any other task.

In every field of life you have to get this rule of 5 more minutes whether it is a student life or an athlete or any other occupation. Athletes increase their physical stamina by crossing the point of fatigue in the same way you can amplify your mental resistance by crossing your aggravation point.

O=One Thing at a time

According to Samuel Goldwyn he only seems confused when he is thinking. It’s all because when you are performing assorted tasks at a time, you are not able to give attention to a single task and you get puzzled and are also not able to concentrate on a single thing. So it is better that you act upon a single task at a time and give it a starting and ending point too.

You must queue your tasks according to their priority and than start performing them. The most important one should be done first and then so on.

C= Defeat Procrastination

Procrastination is basically delaying your work without any reason. R.D. Clyde once said that it is amazing that we want to know that when a task will be completed while we are not working on it.

If you delay a work without any reason than it is only your laziness and you are increasing the burden of your work, as if you will not complete it how is it possible that it will be completed by its own.

So, the next time whenever you are thinking of delaying something keeps 3 questions in your mind: 1. Do I have to postpone it? 2. The next time when I will be doing it will it be easier? 3. Do I want it to be completed as soon as possible so that it is no more on my nerves?

U= Use Your Hands as Your Blinkers

We can actually do a number of things at a time liking driving a car and at the same time talking to a friend. But at the time of our study we need to completely concentrate on our text book rather than the surrounding area. So the best thing for doing this is just make the cups of your hands and place it around your eyes, by doing this you will have a tunnel look and all the other visions will be blocked and your eyes will be on the text book. This will block the other visions and you will not ponder about them.

S= See as if for the First or the Last Time

If you are sitting at a place and your mind is not present there than just simply look around the room keenly and focus on the things. After a while you will realize that you are seeing this thing for a very first time in your life.

And keenly look at your loved ones whom you always take for granted. This will Velveteen Rabbit the world around you and will come to life in your mind.

Here's a positively fascinating article from the archives of CNN on how one man's incredible memory might unlock the secrets of our infinite minds.

Amazing memory man never forgets

LA CROSSE, Wisconsin (AP) -- For as long as he can remember, Brad Williams has been able to recall the most trifling dates and details about his life.

For example, he can tell you it was August 18, 1965, when his family stopped at Red Barn Hamburger during a road trip through Michigan. He was 8 years old at the time. And he had a burger, of course.

"It was a Wednesday," recalled Williams, now 51. "We stayed at a motel that night in Clare, Michigan. It seemed more like a cabin."

To Williams and his family, his ability to recall events -- and especially dates -- is a regular source of amusement. But according to one expert, Williams' skill might rank his memory among the best in the world. Doctors are now studying him, and a woman with similar talents, hoping to achieve a deeper understanding of memory.

Williams, a radio anchor in La Crosse, Wisconsin, seems to enjoy having his memory tested. Name a date from the last 40 years and, after a few moments, he can typically tell you what he did that day and what was in the news.

How about November 7, 1991?

"Let's see," he mused, gazing into the distance for about five seconds. "That would be around when Magic Johnson announced he had HIV. Yes, a Thursday. There was a big snowstorm here the week before."

He went on to identify correctly some 20 other events, including the birth of the first test-tube baby in 1978, the toxic-gas leak in Bhopal, India, in 1984, and Billie Jean King's victory over Bobby Riggs in tennis's "Battle of the Sexes" in 1973.

"I've always been this way," Williams said. "Growing up, I never really had reason to think I wasn't like everyone else."

So how does he do it?

"You want the Nobel Prize right now? Tell me that answer and I'll publish it," said Dr. James McGaugh, who has studied Williams since last summer. "We don't know. We do know that he carries this information with him, that it's detailed, that it's just there. That's what we want to know -- why is it there?"

Williams' brother first contacted McGaugh, a research professor at the University of California, Irvine, after the neurobiologist published a case study of a similar person in the journal Neurocase in 2006.

That woman is in her mid-40s and was identified only by the initials A.J. She told McGaugh that whenever she hears a date, memories from that date in previous years flood her mind like a running movie. The phenomenon, she laments, is "nonstop, uncontrollable and totally exhausting."

"Most have called it a gift, but I call it a burden," she wrote. "I run my entire life through my head every day and it drives me crazy!!!"

McGaugh and his colleagues subjected A.J. to a battery of psychological tests. Given a date at random, she was nearly flawless in recalling the day of the week and what she did that day. The details she provided invariably matched what she had written in diaries decades earlier.

Scientific literature documents people who could memorize a series of 50 to 100 random letters or digits. Another person read a 330-word story twice, then reproduced it nearly verbatim a year later.

But those research subjects remembered meaningless information. What distinguishes Williams and A.J. is their "superior autobiographical memory" -- an above-average ability to remember dates and details from their distant past, McGaugh said.

"In subjects we regard as having this ability, they do better than 90 percent on the tests we provide," McGaugh said.

The tests typically involve reproducing personal information that can be corroborated with old scrapbooks, yearbooks and diaries, sources that McGaugh often tries to obtain from family members without the subjects' knowledge.

Other tests involve naming a notable public event and asking for its date, or vice versa.

Williams and A.J. both performed better on topics that interested them. Williams excels at pop-culture trivia such as Academy Award winners, but he stumbles on sports.

A lifelong bachelor and self-described Scrabble addict, he finished second when he appeared on "Jeopardy!" in 1990. He says he went 5-for-5 on "1984 movies" but tripped up on categories including "snakes" and "words that begin with 'kh'."

Because a person's interest in the information is a key factor in recall ability, some researchers doubt that Williams and A.J. are unique.

"If it's a truly amazing memory that just sucks things up, it shouldn't be based on how interesting something was to you," said Stephen Christman, a neuropsychologist at the University of Toledo in Ohio.

Christman, who wasn't involved in the research, pointed to baseball fanatics who remember obscure statistics because of their passion for the game. Perhaps, he speculated, A.J. obsesses so much over past events and relives them so frequently in her mind that it's now effortless for her to recall countless dates and events.

The number of people with comparable memory skills has been hard to pin down. After publishing his research with A.J., McGaugh heard from about 50 people claiming they had the same skill or, like Williams' brother, knew someone who might.

Of them, McGaugh and his colleagues have identified a third person -- a 50-year-old Ohio man -- who shows similar promise.

Ever since pointing his elder brother in McGaugh's direction, Eric Williams, 45, has been recording Brad's adventures for an upcoming documentary. The movie, to be titled "Unforgettable," is scheduled to be completed later this year.

"The human brain is the most complicated and important machinery in the known universe," McGaugh said. "My aim with this research isn't to cure Alzheimer's. It's to decrease the mystery of this marvelous machinery.

(source)

Creativity Exercises - A Great Exercise That Will Dramatically Improve your Creativity

I want to let you in on a great creativity exercise that will get your creative juices flowing to the extreme. The secret I've just discovered is a creativity exercise called Image Streaming.

It comes courtesy of Win Wenger, Ph.D, and the effects on intellect and creativity are truly startling. You can see results in a few hours.

I'm sure you're wondering . . .

Creativity Exercises: What is Image Streaming?

"Image Streaming is a technique that facilitates access to the deep subconscious by accessing the constantly arising stream of visual images that we have." - source

 

Creativity Exercises: How to Image-Stream?

What you need is an external focus to describe your images to. A tape recorder with blank tape, or a simple Dictaphone like every office used to have, provides you a potential listener for that all-essential focus. Call in a friend, or phone to call up a friend and keep him or her on the line, and you have, even better, a live listener to serve as that external focus.

Of that half of you who did get an image, some found a strong, clear, definite image or set of images, while others just got a glimpse, a faint impression which you might think was hardly worth describing, or weren't certain whether you were just making up the idea rather than seeing an image —

— Yet whatever you got, the key is to examine and describe it aloud, in as rich detail as possible even if you feel at first as if you are "forcing" it and "making up" some of it to fill your description to your external focus listener.

More, though, and more, will come as you describe — be alert to this happening, and describe the new impressions when they come. Your images will become rich and vivid and even their meanings — as Image-Stream contents are often symbolic or metaphoric — will start to become apparent.

That is Image-Streaming. Each full-flow Image-Streaming session should run from 10 to 30 minutes. Examine whatever images happen to be playing in your mind's eye at the time, while describing them in rich detail to a live or potential listener (person or tape recorder).

Even minimum, trivial-seeming impressions or whatever: describe them in such richly textured detail as to force anyone listening to experience and see what you are describing. 10 to 20 minutes at a time, practice several hours of Image-Streaming and you will have mastered the basic skills needed to make other forms of visual thinking work for you. — And you will also have experienced some of the other benefits of Image-Streaming as well, including improved intellectual performance and creativity.

Even if your imagery is already clear and vivid, you will be astonished at how much more so it quickly becomes when you describe it in this way, while continuing to examine it.

Creativity Exercises: 3 Ways this improvement is even stronger!

1)You describe in as sensory-textured detail as possible.

The major part of your brain that we want to bring on line, works with sensory images even in profoundly intellectual matters. Explanation takes you away from that sensory immediacy. Instead of saying, "I'm at the beach" or "This is Virginia Beach," detail instead the warmth of sand under your toes, the sound of surf, the smell of salt, the wheeling of the gulls above you in the almost-white sky, black and white of the gulls on that paler white far above you ....

2)Describe as rapidly as you can, to get more and more detail in.

Describe faster than you can stop to judge whether or not something is worth mentioning, just go ahead and flow it through (and see what comes with it). This is a kind of "brainstorm" only with description instead of ideas or answers, and has a similar rule to brainstorming's "if it occurs to you, express it!" Really rapid-flow describing exerts almost a Venturi force or suction pulling other perceptions into focus.

3) All this is done most easily with eyes shut. . .

 so that your inner visual circuits aren't distracted away from these initially subtler signals, and so they can operate at full sensitivity. In other words, please keep eyes closed during such processing, in order to see more freely.

Read more on the Image Streaming Creativity Exercise

Jose Silva also conducted creativity exercises with many of the kids in his hometown of Laredo. Why not read more on Enhancing Creativity through Gaining Inspiration From Within.

Mind Mapping Tips - Great Tips from Stephen Pierce on Mind Mapping

Mind Mapping Tips Video

I'm sure you've all heard of Stephen Pierce by now; in this great video he gives mind mapping tips that identify the best ways to retain information, maybe from books, magazines, articles, journals - whatever it may be.

Here's a scenario for you . . .

After reading a 200 or even 2000 page book, somebody asks you questions about the novel say, or the lessons learnt from a book of advice, sure it's fresh in your mind . . . but HOW MUCH OF THE INFORMATION HAVE YOU TRULY TAKEN IN?

Apparently these mind mapping tips can make you retain double, triple, or quadruple the amount of information that you would otherwise.

 Stephen Pierce's Great Mind Mapping Tips

Mind mapping is a technique that is so simple and effective and in actual fact it's quite fun at the same time. There's a lot more than just mind mapping tips to be learnt from Stephen Pierce. Why not check out our previous post on the Attraction Accelerator.

Exclusive Teaser Of  'The ESP Affair'

'The ESP Affair' is an upcoming feature film that is set to make you think so far out of the box that it will blow your mind. The ESP Affair is about Connie, an ordinary woman who's dreams are invaded, causing her to stumble onto a top-secret government conspiracy involving psychics and subconscious mind control.

"Imagine a world where . . .

Government has lost the nation's trust, Democracy is compromised, Ordinary people suspect everyone and there is no privacy . . .

you can't trust your neighbor, your family, your lover, you cannot even trust your own dreams"

The ESP Affair

The ESP Affair story is rooted in a TRUE, cold-war era U.S. military project involving trained "psychic spies" known as Remote Viewers. While the evidence suggests that the U.S. government's Remote Viewing program was eventually disbanded, The ESP Affair supposes that it was merely taken underground, and continued to develop in secrecy.

Led by a corrupt politician with delusions of grandeur, the underground program in the movie is turned inward at America's own populous. When a dissenting agent within the underground begins to use his powers for his own insidious purposes, he inadvertently awakens psychic abilities within one of his victims (Connie), and unleashes a series of "blowback" events that lead to the his own exposure, along with the subversion of the psychic conspiracy at large.

This film is set to be truly cutting edge - many of the contributors are pioneers in the field of this remarkable phenomenon - namely Major Ed Dames ( retired US Army) and the inspirational psychic and renowned parapsychologist Lloyd Auerbach consulting with the makers.

You can Learn Remote Viewing . . .

When investigating this thought provoking and engulfing practice I stumbled across a great website that has such a comprehensive catalogue of information on Remote Viewing.

Did you know the CIA, the US Army and the British Army have all used Remote Viewing???

Find out more about this amazing practice by clicking the link below. . .

Learn Remote Viewing

Editor's Note: The Capacity of our mind to learn new subject matter and subject matter which is extremely difficult to grasp is truly staggering. However, are we using the right methods to learn to our full potential?

I found an article on a very alternative approach to learning which after racking my brains for ages makes perfect sense. I'm sure after you read this article it will make sense to you as well. Just think about it - there are so many pitfalls we fall into if we can't grasp a hard topic - for example, reading and reading and READING over the same material.

Let's get the scientific aspect out the way:

The Physiology of Learning

Learning is the acquisition and development of memories and behaviors, including skills, knowledge, understanding, values and wisdom. It is the goal of education, and the product of experience.

Thinking can be thought of as a network of neurons firing in a very specific pattern. As neurons are used, they become thicker and more permanent. It follows then, that the stronger the stimulation, and the more common the stimulation, the more likely the stimulus is to be remembered. More so, memory comes easier when multiple parts of the brain (such as hearing, seeing, smelling, motor skills, touch sense, and logical thinking lobes; informal names given) are stimulated.

There's the technical side - let's look at the alternative learning methods article:

Six steps for learning difficult subjects quickly

Here's a strategy I've found useful for learning dry and difficult material quickly. At various times, I've used it to build up my knowledge of subjects like economics, investing, writing and computer programming languages. Some people have been surprised at how fast I can learn these kinds of skills, but I think anyone can do it with the right plan. Of course, you can use this to teach yourself interesting things as well, but most people don't have any problem learning stuff that's fun.
Okay, here are the steps...

Step 1: Bombard yourself with information

Many people try to slowly and methodically digest difficult material. They underline things and re-read paragraphs ten times to try and understand. This approach might eventually work, but most people get fed up with it and give up before finishing. Our brains hate this way of learning.

Instead, try to get through the material as quickly as possible. Don't worry if you don't understand everything, just keep reading on. Push yourself to get the damn textbook finished, and don't worry too much about how much you take in.

Skip any exercises or quizzes and just keep ploughing through.

Some people can read an entire textbook in a couple of sittings, but not me. I like to digest 10-20 page chunks, then go and do something else for a while to give my brain a rest. If you do this three or four times a day, you can finish a 600 page textbook in about two weeks.

The only time I stop to go back is if there's some key concept that's being repeated a lot and I don't know what it means. Then, I might allow myself to read a key paragraph or two on that topic, but no more. Otherwise I just challenge myself to get through the book as quickly as possible.

Step 2: Identify the key concepts and make them yours

Once you've finished the text, think about what the key concepts were. Don't concentrate on the details at this stage, just identify the core ten or so ideas that form the basis of the subject. Look them up again and try to define them as simply as you can. Putting them in your own words, with an example, rather than learning by rote is important.

For example, The Economist defines the concept of Opportunity Cost as: "The true cost of something is what you give up to get it. This includes not only the money spent in buying (or doing) the something, but also the economic benefits that you did without because you bought (or did) that particular something and thus can no longer buy (or do) something else. "

So you could say to yourself: "Opportunity cost means not being able to spend your resources on one thing because you've already spent them on something else. I can spend my Saturday night doing homework, which means the opportunity cost is that I can't spend that time going to the movies."

Step 3: Only memorize what absolutely has to be memorized

Most facts and figures can be looked up. Don't fill your mind with junk trivia that's only a mouse-click away. Instead of the raw data, concentrate on understanding the ideas of a subject.

However, in any topic, there are some things that simply must be memorized. Cut the list of these down as much as possible, so you're only remembering that which absolutely and definitely has to be remembered.

There are all sorts of memory tricks around, but the one I find most useful is pretty simple. I just repeat out loud the thing that has to be remembered ten times or so. Then, I wait until later in the day and try to remember it again. If I can't, I look it up and repeat it out loud again. Then I wait for later and try to remember it again - and so on. Usually, you can burn a fact into your brain pretty quickly using this method.

Step 4: Get some feedback on your understanding

Now that you've filled your head with stuff, it's time to get some feedback on how well you've understood it. A good way is by doing some kind of mock-exam. You can find these for various subjects on-line, or you might want to try some of the exercises in the textbook.

Again, break this dull task up into chunks if necessary, doing a few different tests over a few days.

You'll probably find that you did pretty badly when you mark yourself. After all, you raced your way through the text. But if you look up the questions that you got wrong, you should amaze yourself at how quickly you start getting a detailed knowledge of the material.

What you're trying to do is build up a framework of the subject in your mind and then fill in the details. This will probably be pretty fuzzy at first, but clarity usually comes quickly as you teach your brain how the concepts are related.

The important thing is not getting the answers right, but looking up what you got wrong and learning it. Do this as quickly as possible. Try to avoid reading whole chapters unless you feel you absolutely need to.

Step 5: Bombard yourself with some more information, but from another source

Now is the time to get some information from other sources. Often, hearing something in a different way helps me to understand it better. It also gives some flexibility to my comprehension.

I'm not suggesting reading another whole textbook. Instead read a few short articles on the subject in magazines and on websites.

Step 6: Get some real-world feedback

Now's the time to get some real-world feedback. If you've learnt a language, try speaking to a native in it. If you've taught yourself anatomy, try having a discussion on the subject with a doctor.

 The best real world feedback of all is if you attempt to use your knowledge for fame or fortune (on a small scale of course). Throw yourself in the deep end, in other words. Join a discussion board on the subject and pick an argument with one of the participants. Or try to get paid employment using your new knowledge.

So there they are, my six steps for learning a difficult subject quickly. Of course, the actual amount of time it takes depends on how much work you put in, but this is the most efficient method I've found in terms of understanding achieved compared to time and effort spent. Usually, I can get a good broad understanding of a topic in a month or two using this method.

check out more from Paul>>

How Do You Learn Difficult Subject Matter?

Share Your Views

This is a truly gripping 20 minute speech which seeks to put all the wrong doings of education right by cultivating our children's creativity rather than killing it.

Sir Ken Robinson, knighted by the Queen in 2003 for achievements in creativity, education and the arts, is an English gentleman with a charming wit and repartee that has an amazing vision to harvest creativity and create an amazing future for the world. He believes that CREATIVITY is as important as LITERACY and should be treated with the same status.

Ken Robinson, who lived in Stratford Upon Avon the home of Shakespeare for many years, begins by demonstrating the amazing creativity of children with numerous funny quips.

He shares a story of a 6 year old little girl who pays no attention in class except when she can draw. The Teacher asks what she is drawing and she claims to be drawing God:

The teacher asks: "BUT nobody knows what God looks like"

The girl replies "They will do in a minute"

This quip literally illustrates how children have no limits to their levels of creativity. Most kids are fearless and are never ever frightened to make mistakes. This leads to out of this world creativity. HOWEVER, our current education systems worldwide are making children lose this capacity to be creative.

You will literally be glued to the screen in this riveting 20 minute video

After you have viewed this clip I invite you to just imagine how much wonderful change we could bring to this world if we truly embraced these teachings!

I'm sure you'll agree that Ken delivers a highly entertaining, and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it.

Picasso once said:

All children are born artists, the problem is remaining an artist as we grow up.

This is the problem that Ken outlines quite brilliantly in his speech. We don't grow into creativity, We grow out of it. In fact Ken argues we are educated out of creativity.

Comments? Share Your thoughts