To the Dirt:
I was really interested in your coordination training programme. The really weird thing is that I have been doing some of the same things for the same reasons. I work for a linguistic philosopher and biblical scholar who happens to be in a wheelchair. I don't see the world in anything like the same light being a totally sceptical atheist (I have extensive experience of some of the psychological problems which the logical inconsistencies of religion can create) and also I don't understand the linguistic vocabulary he uses. His pace of work can be very slow sometimes and I often found myself yearning to play guitar or read a book, the former is out of the question (it would distract him) and the latter is difficult when you are being asked to type something else every 5 or 10 seconds or so. For this reason I took to writing things with my left hand, and yes I did wonder if anyone would be able to write both handedly, I am extremely impressed, that's such a neat trick! I took to this habit for two reasons: 1) I thought it would improve the way I pick with my left hand (I'm trying to become ambidextrous so I can solo like a total maniac) and 2) anything that widens your brains capacities is likely to have some beneficial side-effects.
To Noticing the Mistake:
I note that you stress the importance of mental exercise and how it can increase mental abillity, well, that's why there's such a big market for "boost your own IQ" books! During the course of my own life I have found that my own perceived intelligence has varied wildly. Depression is a condition of reduced brain activity brought on by bad experiences, poor lighting or just unfortunate brain chemistry. A manic-depressive friend of mine told me that apparently a psychological survey was done on the different kinds of thoughts entertained by manic and depressive people and it was found that, overall, the thoughts of the depressive were more logical than those of the manic maniac. For this reason one might envisage that intelligent people may be prone to depression and, having reached a depressive state, loose IQ only to gradually pick it up again as brain activity increases again! It is (universally) accepted by learning psychologists that serotonin, one of the brains happy hormones, a neuro-transmitter, is important in the learning process. This is why it's important to try and make the learning experience enjoyable.
I notice also that you recommend reading the dictionary! Well that sounds laudible to me but I'd rather just use a thesaurus a lot; - the words you get in a thesaurus are more widely applicable than all the crazy and obscure nouns you tend to find in a dictionary.
For fans of Kerouac:
I read on the road, to be honest it wasn't really my scene. Maybe I missed something but it seemed like a jumble of events and didn't seem to make any point or have any meaning to it. I heard from a friend of mine that Kerouac reputedly wrote it on amphetamines (speed) and fed his typewriter with paper that had been stapled together in order to make a big roll so that he wouldn't have to stop to feed it another sheet! Amphetamine intake might also have been implied by all those late night conversations between for instance Dean and Sal.
What I am amazed that nobody has mentioned yet is a series of experiments performed on three differently-treated sets of students before an exam. One set meditated before the exam, another listened to pop music and another listened to some classical music. Of these groups the classical group did best and the meditators and pop-exposed students had about the same success. If it is the case that music can increase the accesibility of memories then could it not be true that exercising the accesibility of memories by using your mind properly should also increase your musical abillity?
As for reading material, all of the books that follow really deeply impressed me:
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Radio Free Albemuth by Phillip K. Dick. THis genius saddly died of a speed habit in 1981, he felt that it was the only way he could keep up his productivity enough to pay the bills. Possibly his drug habit was a major bill.. Don't be deceived by this, his last book, Radio Free Albemuth was utterly brilliant.
The Earth Sea Trilogy (Five books now exists so the Hitch-hikers guide is not unusual in this respect! The trilogy is better than the later two books though), The dispossessed and the Left hand of Darkness by Urusla LeGuinn. She has a rare gift for combining philosophically interesting work with characters who are lovable and believable in text which is both beautiful and yet easily readable.
The confessions and Memoirs of a justified sinner by James Hogg. A fascinating book covering aspects of religion and insanity.
Anything I've ever read by William Golding.
The handmaiden by Margaret Atwood, really chilling. I don't know her other work but I'll bet it's brilliant too, she is a real literary writer.
The Space merchants by Pohl and Kornbluth.
Hope that's not too much to chew, that's enough of me for the time being!
If I couldn't laugh at myself how could I laugh at someone less ridiculous?
