What books of this kind have people read? What do you think of them?
I’ve read a lot of the Tony Buzan books (mind-mapping, memory improvements etc.) and generally I’ve found them very enlightening. A search on Amazon reveals all sorts of other books making interesting claims, such as increasing your power with numbers.
I’m generally inclined to believe these claims, as it seems to me that a lot of academic success comes from merely understanding the core principles and aims of a subject.
I like Tony Buzan’s speed reading book. Haven’t really read his stuff on memory though. There are some weird books out there. The Einstein Factor is one of them. It’s kind of new agey.
Then there is Edward De Bono’s book, Lateral Thinking. It’s about thinking efficiently and organizing your thinking processes. This book is kind of useful in that it made me more aware of thinking strategics and tactics for problem solving.
Here is a site about memory. It’s not really a mnemonic method, but can be combined with mnemonic methods because it’s basically a software that calculates how often you should review your material. It has a section on how to use their method without a computer as well…
I’ve went through enough mnemonics books to see that many of them are pretty much the same and since you already read Buzan’s book, I doubt you would get much out of other mnemonics book. What I still liked was Your Memory by Kenneth Higbee. If you plan on getting any more mnemonics book, you’d probably find that each book has about 1% to 10% new useful info.
Oh yes, the Trachtenberg Method was a great book that changed how I percieved arithmetic. I haven’t read too many books on doing math mentally and/or quickly, but I doubt that the Trachtenberg Method is the only book that has alternative ideas about arithmetic.
intersesting. ive been looking at all the books you mention on amazon.
What do you think of anthony hopkins “unlimited power” etc. books?
Oh and I nearly forgot - Buzan does excellent books on all areas of physical and mental performance now, such as “Head Strong”, “Head First”, and small books on your 10 intelligences. I think these are even better than his other books.
Yes, one of the factors of increasing intelligence is just plain hard work. So I would say motivation and discipline is a big factor in cognitive improvement. This is an area that is hard to manipulate for me. I’ve read some hypnosis books but so far they just seem not to work for me. I guess it’s kind of hard to say to yourself silly chants and whole heartedly believe them. I’ve been thinking about Tony Robbins and of course I am highly skeptical. I haven’t really read any of his stuff yet to comment on them. Also, I’ve been reading that what he is using is neuro-linguistic programming. This is an interesting and controversial subject and has different applications. I’ve read about using this to detect that someone is lying to you.