What is your experience with brain training?

raze 282, modified 9 Months ago at 1/19/24 11:46 PM
Created 9 Months ago at 1/19/24 11:46 PM

What is your experience with brain training?

Posts: 3 Join Date: 11/20/23 Recent Posts
Basically any type of training that tries to increase mental effectiveness or intelligence. Such as improving memory, creativity, learning speed etc.

Did any resource you found stand out above the rest?
shargrol, modified 9 Months ago at 1/20/24 5:21 AM
Created 9 Months ago at 1/20/24 5:21 AM

RE: What is your experience with brain training?

Posts: 2706 Join Date: 2/8/16 Recent Posts
heh, raze you have such curious questions. two months ago you asked:

raze 282, modified 2 Months ago at 11/20/23 3:02 PMCreated 2 Months ago at 11/20/23 3:02 PMDoes meditation / enlightenment make you more attractive?Posts: 2Join Date: 11/20/23 Recent Posts

I've heard conflicting this on this. Does it make people like you more or even make the opposite sex more sexually attracted to you? What are your experiences?


What's your story? tell us a bit about what brings you to DhO -- if you want.
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Papa Che Dusko, modified 9 Months ago at 1/20/24 4:39 PM
Created 9 Months ago at 1/20/24 4:39 PM

RE: What is your experience with brain training?

Posts: 3067 Join Date: 3/1/20 Recent Posts

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Jim Smith, modified 9 Months ago at 1/20/24 5:44 PM
Created 9 Months ago at 1/20/24 5:31 PM

RE: What is your experience with brain training?

Posts: 1799 Join Date: 1/17/15 Recent Posts
raze 282
Basically any type of training that tries to increase mental effectiveness or intelligence. Such as improving memory, creativity, learning speed etc.

Did any resource you found stand out above the rest?



When I was younger I used to do logic puzzles but hadn't for many years. I also took calculus courses in high school and college. A while back I started doing logic puzzles again and also taking math classes at Khan academy web site. At first my brain was out of shape and I had a lot of trouble even understanding the clues to the logic puzzles and also the what the math problems were asking. But I worked on them a little bit every day and I was able to bring my brain back to the point I am enjoying a calculus course and the puzzles.

So I would say that is a huge success for my everyday thinking ability.

I would suggest if math was never much interest to you, someone could still benefit very much from going through some of the more basic math courses. I didn't notice that I had lost so much mental function from lack of use. Not just specific knowledge and skills but also the ability to understand what I was reading, the ability to understand the clues of the logic puzzles and the questions in the math course. So I think it is likely that most people don't realize how much mental function they have lost since high school and college. I am pretty sure my peak academic development was in high school since I started specializing in college. It's probably true for a lot of people - if you don't use it you lose it. 
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People have intuitive thinking abilities and analytical thinking abilities. I developed my analytical abilities in school and career, but I also devoted time to cultivating intuitive abilities too - my belief is that everyone can and should develop both. It is much better to be balanced than unbalanced either way.

I also recommend duolingo to start learning a foreign language, and there are many youtube sites that can help you learn to play a musical instrument.
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Geoffrey Gatekeeper of the Gateless Gate, modified 9 Months ago at 1/20/24 6:22 PM
Created 9 Months ago at 1/20/24 6:22 PM

RE: What is your experience with brain training?

Posts: 465 Join Date: 10/30/23 Recent Posts
Oh well if we're counting math as brain exercises, then I have two degrees in that! Those exercises turned out really well as it spawned an easy-enough well paying career.
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Chris M, modified 9 Months ago at 1/21/24 11:24 AM
Created 9 Months ago at 1/21/24 11:23 AM

RE: What is your experience with brain training?

Posts: 5439 Join Date: 1/26/13 Recent Posts
Jim, it seems to me you're describing "forgetting" and "learning." We forget things we don't actively use often. And those things come back to us when we practice them again.

Am I missing something?
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Siavash ', modified 9 Months ago at 1/21/24 1:53 PM
Created 9 Months ago at 1/21/24 1:53 PM

RE: What is your experience with brain training?

Posts: 1700 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
You mean raze 282 is not a bot?
raze 282, can you prove you are not a bot!?
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Jim Smith, modified 9 Months ago at 1/21/24 7:43 PM
Created 9 Months ago at 1/21/24 7:14 PM

RE: What is your experience with brain training?

Posts: 1799 Join Date: 1/17/15 Recent Posts
Chris M
Jim, it seems to me you're describing "forgetting" and "learning." We forget things we don't actively use often. And those things come back to us when we practice them again.

Am I missing something?

Training can mean learning something new, or it can mean maintaining physical fitness.
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I wrote:
At first my brain was out of shape and I had a lot of trouble even understanding the clues to the logic puzzles and also the what the math problems were asking.
My point is that it is more than just remembering how to do something. When I wrote that after all that time I couldn't even understand the questions I meant that my mental capacity to do the problems had diminished. The point is not really remembering how to do the problems it is maintaining the mental stamina the mental strength to do the problems.

Even though you never forget how to ride a bike, riding a bike is still exercise.

And knowing how to ride a bike and riding a bike are different. Knowing how to solve a math problem is different from actually solving a math problem. It's the difference between knowing rules and knowing how and when to apply the rules. With math this can be very difficult. Each logic problem is different and they can be hard even if you have done many of them. And with both, there are also the many little things you have to get right to get the right answer, any little careless mistake will throw off the whole problem - so you are forced to check your work and be careful and be very clear in you mind about what you are doing - it forces you to develop a kind of mental clarity or awareness about what you are doing rather than being in a kind of mental fog about it.

Maybe my post is not exactly what the op is interested in, but it's close enough and important enough in my opinion to be worth posting. It is certainly more relevant than many of the snide pointless quips that can clutter up a thread and which the moderators allow.

And sometimes a person asks a question and you think you understand what they want to know, but you think they didn't ask the right question to get the information they are seeking, so you answer the question you think they should have asked,.
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Papa Che Dusko, modified 9 Months ago at 1/22/24 7:15 PM
Created 9 Months ago at 1/22/24 7:15 PM

RE: What is your experience with brain training?

Posts: 3067 Join Date: 3/1/20 Recent Posts
Oh boy oh boy emoticon This reply totally managed to create a mental knot for me emoticon well done! 
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Papa Che Dusko, modified 9 Months ago at 1/22/24 7:16 PM
Created 9 Months ago at 1/22/24 7:16 PM

RE: What is your experience with brain training?

Posts: 3067 Join Date: 3/1/20 Recent Posts
I blame shargrol! emoticon He was encouraging it! 
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Papa Che Dusko, modified 9 Months ago at 1/22/24 7:18 PM
Created 9 Months ago at 1/22/24 7:18 PM

RE: What is your experience with brain training?

Posts: 3067 Join Date: 3/1/20 Recent Posts
Ok, I will star first! emoticon I am not an AI bot! emoticon 


​​​​​​​There you go! (It was not that difficult) emoticon 
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Geoffrey Gatekeeper of the Gateless Gate, modified 9 Months ago at 1/23/24 6:13 AM
Created 9 Months ago at 1/23/24 6:13 AM

RE: What is your experience with brain training?

Posts: 465 Join Date: 10/30/23 Recent Posts
I am not an AI bot!

​​​​​​​But isn't that exactly what an AI bot would say? Hmmmm

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