In Part Two of this book you will acquire 4 new pieces of neuroware - software for your brain - that you can immediately use to get better results at school, at home and at work. This brain software will also help you to avoid the problems caused by PTV in your brain.
The neurosoftware code is SDNT CVSTOBVS QRH PRR.
This 4-part package of brain software includes:
Imagine that you owned the best music system that money could buy.
Suppose you paid $20,000 for an amplifier/equaliser and another $10,000 for a CD/cassette player plus $40,000 for the best speakers you could get hold of. You could now boast that you owned the best music hardware system in your street, maybe even the best in your town.
Now, imagine you only had one solitary Patsy Kline CD to play on your ultra-hi fi hardware. There's nothing wrong with Patsy but a diet of I Fall To Pieces and Your Cheatin' Heart may be somewhat limiting when it comes to long term music entertainment.
These same limitations face us when we boast possession of a necktop yet only have one piece of thinking software, logic. Logic is useful enough for labeling and mail-sorting and dealing with the past but it's not nearly enough to help us cope with the challenges of the future.
We do need some more software for our brain to help us survive in rapidly changing environments and increasingly competitive and shrinking global markets. We also need more brain software because we're not happy being stuck with what we have at present.
Brainpower and Intelligence
Brainpower is how you use tools, like software, to enhance your intelligence. These tools are higher-order cognitive tools that help us think about what we should think about. Sometimes this 'thinking about thinking' is called by cognitive scientists, meta-cognition.
There are two main types of intelligences: Data Intelligence and Game Intelligence. Data Intelligence is the role that information plays in thinking. Game Intelligence is the role of strategies, clever moves, clever ideas, ploys and tricks that are the product of thinking about and exploring the information.
Data Intelligence is only necessary for the relatively dumb, unthinking reaction to situations - "What do I do next?" Game Intelligence goes a step further where the individual asks himself, "What do I think about next?" before asking "What do I do next?"
Brain software is a mind tool which permits the brainuser to go a step even further by allowing him or her to ask, "How do I think better about what I should think about next?"
Tools are important for intelligence. Tools, like a laptop, are not just the result of intelligence but they actually ENDOW intelligence on the user. When you give someone a laptop you increase or enhance her chance at arriving at more intelligent moves.
"Anthropologists have long recognised that the advent of tool use accompanied a major increase in intelligence" observes Daniel Dennett, Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University and author of Consciousness Explained. Commenting on the value of mind-tools in developing the user's intelligence he says "Tool use is a two-way sign of intelligence. Not only does it require intelligence to recognise and maintain a tool, but tool use CONFERS intelligence on those who are lucky enough to be given the tool. The better designed the tool the more potential intelligence it confers on the user."
Cognitive Science
Since the 1970s brought the explosion of the Information Revolution and the rise of personal computers we've become even more interested in the brain and how it works. "What is intelligence?" and "How can we improve it?" are questions being asked in a whole new field of science devoted to these things called - cognitive science. Cognitive science is concerned with the processes of sensing (seeing, hearing, smelling); storing information (memory) and recall; reasoning, planning and intelligent action. It also includes areas like AI (Artificial Intelligence) and robotics. In other words - thinking - both in animals and machines.
Like all human traits - height, strength, sexuality and looks etc - intelligence is distributed unequally. Some people have more intelligence than you do and some have less than you do and, of course, the same applies to me.
How's Your Brainpower?
Here is a simple audit for you to rate your own brainpower. It was designed by Dr Eric Bienstock, who ran SOT in New York. Eric based this checklist on the SOT's Learn-To-Think coursebook. How do you rate your own brainpower?
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer each of the following questions, scoring either 3, 2, 1, or 0 points for each answer depending on your objective estimate of how often you actually do what is stated. Use your best guess of the following criteria for scoring:
3 - 90% OF THE TIME (nearly always)
2 - 70% OF THE TIME (mostly)
1 - 40% OF THE TIME (often)
0 - 10% OF THE TIME (hardly ever)
SCORE
______ My judgements of ideas are based on the value of the idea rather than on my emotions at the time.
_______ I judge ideas not just as "good" or "bad" but also as "interesting" if they can lead on to better ideas.
_______ I consider all factors in a situation before choosing, deciding or planning.
_______ I consider all factors first, before picking out the ones that matter most.
_______ When I create a rule I see to it that it is clearly understood and possible to obey.
_______ I try to see the purpose of rules I have to obey, even if I don't like the rules.
_______ I look at consequences of my decisions or actions not only as they affect me but also as they affect other people.
_______ I look at a wide range of possible consequences before deciding which consequences to bother about.
_______ On the way to a final objective I establish a chain of smaller objectives each one following on from the previous one.
_______ The objectives I set are near enough, real enough and possible enough for me to really try to reach them.
_______ In planning, I know exactly what I want to achieve.
_______ I keep my plans as simple and direct as possible.
_______ I know exactly why I have chosen something as a priority.
_______ I try to get as many different ideas as possible first, before starting to pick out the priorities.
_______ I will go on looking for alternatives until I find one I really like.
_______ While most people look for alternatives when they are not satisfied; I look for them deliberately even when I am satisfied.
_______ I am able to tell myself the real reason behind a decision I make.
_______ Before making a decision, I consider the factors, look at the consequences, get clear about the objectives, assess the priorities, and search for possible alternatives.
_______ I am able to see the other person's point-of-view whether I agree with it or not.
_______ I am able to spell out the differences and similarities between different viewpoints.
_______ TOTAL SCORE.
INTERPRETATION
This is not a scientific test. It's just an audit or checklist to help you take stock of your thinking, that's all! A trained thinker can direct his or her thinking and use it in a deliberate manner to produce an effect. To a trained and skilled thinker, thinking is a tool that can be used at will and the use of this tool is practical. This ability to use 'thinking as a skill' is the sort of thinking ability that is required to get things DONE.
If your total score in this test was between 51 and 60 points, you already possess superior brainpower.
If you scored between 31 and 50 points, you have better than average brainpower.
If you scored between 0 and 30, you possess no additional brainpower other than the natural thinking ability that most people have.
Record your score here: _______
Click here for Index to go to the next Chapter
The purpose of this training is to help us to become skilled thinkers through daily practice, which we do live and interactively in Internet Conference Rooms... for details contact An Ever Better World Internet Academy.... To further explore this subject, consult the Internet site by the author of this book available at http://www.schoolofthinking.org/... How to get these is explained during the daily practice sessions is provided to active participants with the Ideal Network...
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