[ddingus]

Acuity can be improved with more work on focus.

Memory can be improved with exercise and various aids, some of which help you pack more into working memory, while others get your data to be close at hand.

I submit your intelligence is what it is.

What this all comes down to is work. While there may be a ceiling for all of us, defined by inability to grok no matter how much work is done, the fact is below that point work has real, tangible benefits.

You can improve your wisdom dramatically too. Processing either your own experience, or that which others share, can give you seriously potent mental tools, rules of thumb, contexts to reason with.

Think of wisdom like you do tools. It is a labor output multiplier. In our youth, we are rarely wise, but we also are white hot nimble. When we are old, we have a body of experience to draw on.

Wise people make more with fewer moves, generally see lower risks and costs and can often gain the benefit of time. That is time for the work needed to be relevant, vital.

All these things combined can really add up. I have changed careers a few times and take these things very seriously each time.

It pays off.

Whatever intelligence we have is likely to be enough, unless our goals are severely misaligned with our basic nature. In my experience, this is rare given one gets to hard work and sets clear priorities.

And that is the last thing. We lose a little of that youthful nimble mind as we age. It does not go away, but it does require priority to manifest and serve the function you need it for.

When you perform these works, make them count. Be present and give yourself time to play, explore, shake off inhibition.

Trust you will get there.

[the_only_law]

> While there may be a ceiling for all of us, defined by inability to grok no matter how much work is done, the fact is below that point work has real, tangible benefits.

I’m a bit on edge, because as of right now I have no idea what that is. I’ve come up with a few medium-long to long term plans that will be an huge time investment and likely in some way a moderate monetary investment, but am not sure if I have the intelligence to complete them. Worse even, I figure I would unlikely find out until I’m significantly invested in them. Due to a mix of things like laziness and poor focus (the latter of which you note can be improved) that I believe in part has held me back in that past, but I also feel that certain failures could be due to intelligence, but as of right now, I’m unable to differentiate.

[ddingus]

Who can? Seriously.

Either:

trust you are smart enough, and we almost always are, and commit to hard work

, or

abandon it and move on something lower risk, lower cost, but with a respectable or worthy reward

, or

seek help.

Rough place to be in, frankly. I do not envy you. :(

And what of the rewards?

You might try valuing them this way:

Actual value = (predicted value * risk) - (cost * time)

[mpva]

Thanks for this +1

To also add,, I have been told meditation can help and I would also like to start that.

I find that I lack focus, memory and interest. My curiosity and desire to learn has been replaced with "CBA" for want of a better phrase.

I want to be better, smarter and able to understand situations better.

[ddingus]

It has helped me in the past, particularly with focus.

Of all that I said, being present, as in seriously lucid, is the biggest bang for the buck in all this work as you transition through age. Lucidity is much duller, not as potent of a state when one has a noisy mind.

It can bring you those young eyes and help you internalize wisdom.

Those fast, smart people will see that and value it. Hell, I did and have had wise mentors over the years too.

I cannot overstate the value in all of that. Nailing hard tasks beats quick convo over coffee almost everytime.

There is a big difference between being able to trade in smart things and wise people who can focus well and drill down to vital insights, and or see the golden ones amidst a pile of brassy, attractive things.

That's all I got really. Good luck!

[mpva]

What do you mean by: Nailing hard tasks beats quick convo over coffee almost everytime. ?

[ddingus]

Sorry I'm late to see this.

It's a reference to focus. Sometimes those quick coffee conversations are part of the focus and make a lot of sense and are big help. Sometimes a fresh mind can really do wonders.

They also can be a major league distraction, and or a source of anti Focus. I wasn't really clear on that and should have been. Hopefully this helps.

[mariushn]

> Processing either your own experience, or that which others share, can give you seriously potent mental tools, rules of thumb, contexts to reason with.

Could you please expand on this?

[ddingus]

I'm late to answer respond on this one too. Just happened to scroll back through my comments.

First and foremost, being really present, lucid for new experiences, or as an observer to others new experiences, captures a lot of information in the moment that has high value.

Taking a while after something like that to think through it internalized it, what rules may apply, what dynamics were present, and details and importance is a very good exercise. What this does is kind of solidify and amplify the memory of the experience.

Secondly, a great many things are connected. As we have time, making those connections can yield perspective and commonality that can save us a lot of time in the future by recognizing when those things are in play. And what I mean by that is you may actually have a skill or an understanding that that's workable already known to you, but you don't know it because you have never matched up the task at hand with the full set of tools you possess.

This is going to seem like a silly example, but when I was working in the shop, I found a lot of similarities between how I staged the material I was handling, optimize the process I was executing, and programs how data moves, what's efficient what's not, that sort of thing.

Once I had that realization, I broke every production record in the building regularly, with very little negative impact, and a lot of positive impact.

I spent a lot of time in manufacturing, as and being a prototype mechanic, making things directly with my hands and the tools. I also spent a fair amount of time upfront engineering, putting in systems for automation, doing layout design reviews and that sort of thing.

I worked with a lot of people, from older workers who'd been doing this their whole lives to young people just getting started.

Take production. More fit, younger people do well, given they have discipline.

Now, protos, or improving production works very differently. Sometimes the goal is to make one or two of something hard.

Here, the people who have had experiences, who know how to think, who can qualify and quantify risks, who have an internal sense of the dynamics, scale, etc... who can feel its good, rock!

Normally it takes many years to perform that role. I was the youngest by a couple decades. And I performed well.

And that all happened because I understood the phrase you asked me more about.

Working with those guys, who learned their craft in all analog means, no computers was amazing!

Wisdom is to how we think and how productive those thoughts are like tools are to labor.

Here is the secret:

You watch with eyes and mind wide open. Try to remember that state when you were a little kid, no preconceptions and excitement, openness to a new thing and just be ultra lucid, present.

Then, afterword, think about it, connect things together, and then share with others to firm it up, get clarity and filter out noise, error.

Many people become good at repeating what they have seen or done. Does not matter physical, virtual, whatever. It is monkey see, monkey do.

And that's great! It is a skill I value highly, makes me a great technician.

But, the second order on all that is to know why, be able to derive that from basics and compare to other "whys" already known.

The third order comes with time, and that is perspective, scale, expectations, being able to plan well in advance, and execute with confidence, despite large portions of the task at hand being novel.

Truth is far less is truly novel, and we do not realize and benefit from that because we do not take the time to really see what our experiences, or those shared with us mean.