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by jhap 1807 days ago
I wonder what the actual single most impactful thing you can do to boost your intelligence is?

Besides going to school for 20 years, being well-fed and rested, presumably it's taking modafinil?

3 comments

Live in an area without noise and air pollution. Stay in shape. Don't eat lead paint chips. Have smarter children and train them to inherit your legacy[1].

Modafinil probably doesn't boost intelligence, but you'd have to define intelligence first. It increases "executive function" and decreases some other things like creativity and reaction times.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S09249...

[1] This is a better strategy than relying on your own intelligence, because you're only ever one blow to the head away from losing it.

Twenty years ago I heard stories about people taking Piracetam, but afaik it's for Alzheimer patients and not healthy individuals looking to boost their intelligence.
Importantly, we don't know about anything that can "boost" intelligence. We only know some things that can help not harm your intelligence. Eating a healthy diet is the biggest, others have named things like avoiding pollution.