Mind Performance Hacks

Mind Performance Hacks: Tips and Tools for Overclocking Your Brain is a self-help book using psychology and mnemonic techniques to improve thinking skills such as memory, creativity, mental math, and other cognitive abilities by Ron Hale-Evans, who wrote and researched approximately 80% of the book material.[1] It is also notable in its use of Perl programming scripts to supplement a few of the hacks. Inspired by the Mentat Wiki, also created by Ron Hale-Evans, the book was published by O'Reilly Media in February 2006 as part of the O'Reilly Hacks series. It is considered an unofficial sequel to the earlier Mind Hacks.

Mind Performance Hacks

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Mind Performance Hacks ISBN:0596101538 is a book by RonHaleEvans, maintainer of the Mentat Wiki. (It also contains hacks from some of the OtherContributors.) The book was published by O'Reilly Media in February 2006. Mind Performance Hacks addresses many of the same topics as this wiki, in O'Reilly's well-known Hacks format. There is some overlap between the book and the wiki, but each contains plenty of new material too.

The official home page for Mind Performance Hacks is , but this page is the central support page for the book. You'll find links to separate pages for each of the book's 75 hacks below, where you can comment on the book, suggest material for a sequel or second edition, make corrections, and so on.

You're smart. This book can make you smarter.Mind Performance Hacks provides real-life tips and tools for overclocking your brain and becoming a better thinker. In the increasingly frenetic pace of today's information economy, managing your life requires hacking your brain. With this book, you'll cut through the clutter and tune up your brain intentionally, safely, and productively.Grounded in current research and theory, but offering practical solutions you can apply immediately, Mind Performance Hacks is filled with life hacks that teach you to:

You're smart. This book can make you smarter.Mind Performance Hacks provides real-life tips and tools for overclocking your brain and becoming a better thinker. In the increasingly frenetic pace of today's information economy, managing your life requires hacking your brain. With this book, you'll cut through the clutter and tune up your brain intentionally, safely, and productively.Grounded in current research and theory, but offering practical solutions you can apply immediately, Mind Performance Hacks is filled with life hacks that teach you to:

Sure, thanks to the hacks in this chapter on memory, youll be able to remember all the U.S. presidents and world capitals, but maybe youll still forget your keys and your cell phone when you leave the house. What good are mnemonic tricks if you can t apply them to daily life? You can make a practical difference in your preparedness for daily life and the efficiency with which you live it if you memorize a list of items without which you never leave the house .If you run through this checklist when leaving work, school, a restaurant, or a friend s house, you need never leave anything important behind wherever you go. You can also use this hack to get out of the house quickly in the morning, by ensuring that all of the items on the checklist are gathered in one place before you go to sleep. In Action For this hack, youll need some kind of mnemonic skeleton that can contain about 10 items (or as many as are on your checklist).You can use a short journey [Hack #3 ],the 10 digits of the Dominic System [Hack #6 ],the number shape system [Hack #2 ],or anything else that you can remember effortlessly and when distracted. I use the first mnemonic system I ever learned, the number rhyme system ,which my father taught me when I was a boy: "One is gun; two is shoe; three is tree," and so on. Ergo, for the first item on my list, I create a vivid image that contains the item and a gun; I remember the second item by associating it with a shoe; and so on down the list. Compile your checklist and write the items next to the mnemonic skeleton. Put your most important items first in the list so that youll remember to grab those even if you are interrupted and can t run through your entire list. As always, link the objects you want to remember to the places in the mnemonic skeleton using the most vivid images you can. Here is my actual list: 1 ::gun ::medicationI never leave the house without this. I imagine a gun firing pills scattershot in all directions. 2 ::shoe ::keysI imagine the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe trying to open the front door of her giant shoe with her keys while dozens of her children are tugging on her skirt. 3 ::tree ::cell phoneI imagine a tree with a 1920s-style varnished black telephone handset and mouthpiece protruding from it. A pair of bells on the tree ring loudly. 4 ::door ::notebookI imagine my Moleskine Mini notebook grown to enormous size. The front cover swings open like a door with a huge Inner Sanctum creak of hinges.(I never go anywhere without my catch [Hack #13 ].) 5 ::hive ::walletI imagine opening my wallet and a swarm of bees flying out into my face.Argh! 6 ::sticks ::PDAI imagine using a scratchy wooden stick with leaves as a stylus to write on my PDA.(This also reminds me to bring a stylus, in case I forget in step 10.) 7 ::heaven ::eyeglassesI imagine my eyeglasses shining, because they are made out of the same nacreous material as the Pearly Gates. 8 ::gate ::handkerchiefI imagine my handkerchief tied to the post of an ordinary garden gate and flapping in the wind like a flag as the gate swings back and forth. 9 ::wine ::Swiss Army knifeI imagine that one of the blades of my red Swiss Army knife is actually a miniature wine bottle and that when I open it, a flood of red wine pours out. 10 ::hen ::penI imagine that a hen is pecking at a bunch of the four-color pens I use, which lie about on the ground in abundance with some PDA styluses. In Real Life I can honestly say that in the year or two I have been using this technique, I have forgotten particular items on the list only once or twice, and that was merely because I didnt run through the whole list as I was packing up. There was, however, one incident, where my wife and I were late because I set my fully packed bag down momentarily and forgot to bring the whole kit with me! I m now so familiar with my list that 10 brings pen to mind immediately rather than hen, and so on. Therefore, it s been easy to add two more items without thinking of additional mnemonics for them:11, my exoself [Hack #17 ],and 12,a good book to read. However, if I were going to extend my checklist any more, I would certainly add more mnemonic pegs. See Also A murse (a.k.a. man purse ),such as that which I carry all my gear in, is an essential mini-hack in itself. Of course, women reading this whove been carrying purses for years will think that men like me are a bit slow and wonder what business we have writing a book on mental performance.It s also useful to stock bags for different purposes, such as school, work, and emergencies. These work as a kind of external memory; you can just grab them and go.

Marty Hale-Evans lives just south of Tacoma, Washington, in the octagonal Groovagon with Ron and the Troublesome Yet Adorable Quadrupeds, Pomeranians Humphrey and Bridget. Marty was a primary developmental editor for Mind Performance Hacks, to which she also contributed several hacks. She has chosen the first-class upgrade to co-author for Mindhacker. Her professional title is usually technical editor, under which she has worked for companies such as Microsoft, Boeing, WGBH Educational Foundation, and the University of Chicago Press.

The baseline-dependency of cognitive enhancementis not restrictedto pharmaceuticals: also in the case of video games,133 cognitive training,134 or brainstimulation,135,136 individuals starting at a lowerbaseline performance benefit more than those with an already highperformance at baseline. In contrast, sleep appears to improve memoryparticularly in subjects with a higher baseline performance of memory,137 working memory138 or intelligence.139 Also mnemonic trainingappears to work particularly well in individuals with a higher cognitivebaseline performance.140 This has beeninterpreted in terms of an amplification model, in which high baselineperformance and cognitive enhancement interventions show synergisticeffects.141

Interventions can also differregarding the time point of applicationrelative to the situation when enhanced cognitive performance is needed.For example, application of stress hormones such as cortisol or adrenalinebefore or after memory encoding enhances memory, whereas applicationbefore retrieval impairs memory;41 benzodiazepinesimpair memory when given before and enhance memory when given afterencoding;164 in contrast, caffeine beforelearning enhances memory under certain conditions but might impairmemory when consumed afterward.165,9 Mnemonic strategieson the other hand work solely when taught/applied before/during encoding,but can hardly be applied afterward.

A further aspect that determines the social acceptance of cognitiveenhancement is the aim of the given intervention. Taken by face value,the term cognitive enhancement denotes any actionor intervention that improves cognitive capacities, independent fromthe specific aim of this improvement. The use of the term in the empirical,philosophical, and sociopolitical literature, however, varies withregard of the specific aim of enhancement interventions: people appearto be more tolerant toward enhancement of traits considered less fundamentalto self-identity,200 and also more toleranttoward enhancement in individuals with cognitive impairments or lowperformance baselines compared to enhancement of normal or high achievers.201,202 At least four different aims can be identified, each leading todifferent research strategies and different ethical evaluations ofexisting or potential enhancement strategies.203 The least problematic concept of cognitive enhancementtargets those everyday medical or psychological interventions thatare meant to treat pathological deficiencies. Closely related arethose cognitive enhancement interventions that aim to prevent or attenuatecognitive decline that is associated also with healthy aging.204 Slightly less accepted appear to be those enhancementstrategies that aim to improve cognition in completely healthy individuals,but still clearly stay within the normal limits of cognition. Theprobably most widely used and ethically most controversial conceptof cognitive enhancement aims at the augmentation of cognitive capacitiesbeyond normal function, as is represented in the cliché ofhigh-functioning students or managers trying to further improve theirperformance by taking smart pills. 041b061a72