26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazingly Practical Advice, July 7, 2001
This review is from: How to Be Twice as Smart: Boosting Your Brainpower and Unleashing the Miracles of Your Mind (Paperback)
"How to Be Twice as Smart" appears a perfect candidate for a cheap gag gift to a friend. You should buy the book. But keep it for yourself for serious study on how to leverage your existing brain cells to the maximum benefit.
In the text, Witt cites the oft quoted figure that we only use a small percentage of our brains. If we increase that percentage we can outperform others with greater innate abilities.
Unlike other authors, Witt actually proceeds to discuss how we can increase our "mental leverage" by the following:
(1) Keep an index card system to remember facts, keep the cards randomized
(2) Use digit conversions to remember numbers (for example 5 maps to "l" and 3 maps to "m". If you needed to remember a long string of numbers such as your credit card, you could simply remember the words formed from the mapping.)
(3) Don't re-read. And try to take in a greater number of words per glance. Use the SMART reading technique which represents the set of questions about the text you should ask yourself: namely, Subject, Material, Assertions, Reaction, Trademark.
(4) Perform mathematical computations by going left to right, rather than the reverse
(5) Visualization can be as useful as field practice
(6) Write in shorthand to capture conversations, etc.
(7) Confidence and independence are common traits of creative people
(8) Methods of disarming your detractors and influencing others
In short, the scope and applicability of Witt's book is striking, making this is the best "improve your mental ability" book I have ever read.
Paul Erdos
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26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It didn't make me twice as smart but I sure look that way, December 18, 2000
This review is from: How to Be Twice as Smart: Boosting Your Brainpower and Unleashing the Miracles of Your Mind (Paperback)
Wow! I bought this book as a lark thinking it might give me some laughs. Instead I can state with certainty that, although it didn't make me twice as smart, it did make me look twice as smart, probably smarter. Particularly good was the advice on intelligent listening. I knew there were covert messages to everything that was said but I didn't know how to decode those messages and use them to my advantage especially in negotiations. The mental math Witt gives us has helped me look like a genius before my students and I now add, subtract, and multiple in my head faster than they can using a calculator. The reason this book is so effective, besides the clear intelligent style of the writing, is that nobody functions at a level anywhere near his or her mental capacity. If you can increase that capacity by a factor of two, you have to outperform the competition.
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book, June 12, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: How to Be Twice as Smart: Boosting Your Brainpower and Unleashing the Miracles of Your Mind (Paperback)
This is the greatest book I've ever read. There are lots of great ideas mentioned in aspects like how to improve your memory, how to learn a brand new skill quickly, how to jot notes fast enough not to miss a single word from even the fastest speaker in the world. The only thing I regret after reading this book is I couldn't have read this book earlier. One more thing to mention is that I read this book twice. After finished reading the book the first time I didn't follow the instructions of the author and hadn't practice at all. In the second time I read the book I follow the suggestions and immerse myself practicing the idea. It really works.
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