Most of you are familiar with the idea of blog memes, tag lists, and so on. I know you’re familiar with them, because many of you keep tagging me — and I keep letting the games die. It’s not that I’m not interested, I am! I just get so caught up in the brain/mind ponderings they slip my mind (other things slip my mind, too… I’d tell you about them, but I’ve forgotten what they are).

But I’ve resolved to do better, starting with the most recent game of tag — Priscilla Palmer’s Personal Development List. It’s a great big list of personal development blogs. Many of my favorite blogs and bloggers are already on the list. Many of *you* are already on the list. In fact most of the blogs I read are already on the list.

That’s what happens when you’re playing tag, stop to count to 100, get distracted by a turkey sandwich, a phonecall, and a cloud that looks like a butterfly. The game passes you by (but you do have a nice lunch, get to fuss at a telemarketer, and smile at the sky.)

I did manage to find a few blogs to add, though… here they are, for your personal development pleasure: Read more…

Samantha Pulumbo was a stunningly beautiful and brilliant 16 year old with a promising future;  an auto accident left her with brain injuries deemed “not compatible with life.”

Her story, told by LA Times writer Kurt Streeter, is a touching example of the brain’s plasticity and how well it can adapt, change and shift functions to different areas.

Read about her here: A teenage girl, a terrible injury and a will to recover - Los Angeles Times

(…. and keep the tissues handy)

Before you read this post, you might want to take a deep breath. This is one of those turning-an-idea-upside-down posts, and it’s entirely counter intuitive. So consider yourselves warned! 

 Background________

 Two of my long-term goals are to pull both my weight and my finances under control.  I like it being pretty, being thin, being healthy.  I like feeling financially secure, having enough money to  be generous to others at a whim, and to spend in ways that make me happy. 

Right now I am none of these things.

I like these things, I value them, but somehow, they don’t seem to *motivate* me. Not when it comes to making and maintaining changes in my lifestyle. 

So instead of pushing and should-ing myself to force motivation that will eventually fail, I’ve decided to strap the goals of health, exercise and finances to something that *does* motivate me…. the intellectual vanity I discovered a week or so ago.

Read more…

Since I’ve been rambling on about my own intellectual vanity, several readers have remarked on different concepts of intelligence, and asked for how I define it. 

Before I answer, though… I’d like to hear more of your thoughts. 

How do YOU define intelligence?

What is it that you see in a person that makes you think “Hey, they’re smart?”

And what is it you might see that makes you think “Hey, maybe they AREN’T so smart after all?”

I’m not looking for the scientific or dictionary answers here - but how you use the word, what it means in your own head.  It may take some thought to really figure out what you think makes someone “smart”.

As regular readers know, lately I’ve embarked on a personal “fix my mind” regime. I’m only a few weeks into it, and there’s a definite perceived improvement in my alertness, focus, and concentration. The brain-fitness program Lumosity is most likely the major contributor.

But outside of the expected improvements in cognitive function, I’ve learned a few interesting tidbits from the experience. Read more…

Yesterday, I exploded my subconscious assumption that wealth and intelligence were strongly connected (they aren’t). Today, the topic is even more painful; just typing the title of this post made me shudder.

But exploring this second subconscious prejudice of mine (A presumed link between being overweight, and being not-so-bright) didn’t lead me at all where I expected.

When I keyed the search terms into Google, I was confident that I’d find there was no real link between weight and intelligence.

I was wrong. Read more…

The other day, I asked if you thought intelligence was connected to weight and/or wealth. As I delved into my own prejudices last week, I’d done a bit of research via Google, to turn up any related facts.

I’d expected to find that yes, wealthy people were a bit brighter, and maybe a lot brighter… and that weight had very little to do with intelligence. Studies suggest I’m very wrong.

Wealth and Intelligence_________________

USA Today reports on a study focused on the impact of IQ on wealth, income and financial distress.

What they found was that IQ does slightly increase income, but has little impact on actual net worth. Increased IQ does, however, put people at a higher risk for financial problems - things like maxed out credit cards, missed payments, and bankruptcy. Read more…

It’s been a busy week, and still getting busier. My planned posts just ain’t happening.  So today, you get a guessing game…

Are either of my two prejudices about intelligence supported by science?

Are overweight people more or less intelligent than others?

Are wealthy people more or less intelligent than those less well off?

(I’m not claiming my prejudices are good things.  They aren’t.  In fact, I’m rewiring them as we speak.  But the reality and stats I discovered along the way are interesting, and since I’m busy, I thought it would be fun to get your thoughts on it.  And no cheating by researching with Google!)

Ever envied people with photographic memories?I’ve always longed for the ability to flip through a mind-album of experience, examining each Polaroid snapshot for details and information.

When I was younger, I came close to that having that level of recall. I could read a textbook chapter, and while I might not remember a specific detail, I could usually tell you what page and paragraph the detail could be found on. The mental photos were out of focus and sometimes spotty, but it was enough to give me a serious edge in school.

That skill weakened over the years (actually while I was still in high school) and it was one of the losses that most frustrated me. I *liked* having that edge, dangnabbit!

But a recent article by Mark Shead (of Productivity501) gave me hope I might yet recover that skill, and I suspect that anyone might use a method like this to develop a similar level of recall.

Read more…

We’re all prejudiced. No matter how logical, forward-thinking and open-minded we think we are, prejudicial thinking lurks in our subconscious, influencing our reactions, goals, opinions and choices.

And no, I’m not going to ask you to reveal your personal prejudices to the world today; this post is about my own flawed stereotypical bias(es). So you can breathe a sigh of relief and feel a bit superior, if you like, while I get down to business.

As I explored/exploited my intellectual vanity this week, a few ugly prejudices surfaced… prejudices related directly to intelligence. I don’t really remember how they surfaced, just that they did, and I was shocked.

Buried in my subconscious darkness is an association between being thin, and being smart. I also uncovered a subconscious bias towards wealth, and a hidden belief poor people are less intelligent.

Akk. These beliefs aren’t pretty, and I don’t like admitting they exist, but there they are, staring me right in the face. They’re inaccurate, they’re unfair, they’re ugly, and I want to hide from them. Read more…