Brain Building in Just 12 Weeks
After becoming obsessed with chess, I began researching its correlation to intellect in an attempt to feel better about myself that sorely failed. Enter Marilyn vos Savant. I was inspired to find out that the person who had the highest IQ ever known was a female. Also a writer and columnist, she has a very interesting viewpoint on potential, intelligence and how people live their lives.
While reading the book, Brain Building in Just 12 Weeks, it was fascinating to look through the lens of a woman who seemed to see things so plainly yet with such understanding. One of the things I enjoyed the most was how she understood the plasticity of the brain and how continuously challenging yourself to learn more could create your own intelligence, even if you went to school that failed you (she is not a fan of structured education).
As she states,
“What is striking about Webster’s definition is the word ‘capacity,’ which captures the true meaning of the word ‘intelligence.’ It is potential, separate and distinct from learning, the brain, or the rest of the mind. It is the usable potential to learn, to profit from experience, to deal with problems and solve them, to improve one’s own life and those of others, to speculate on the unknown, and to chart new worlds and explore new horizons.”
What I really liked about her book was the challenge it presented against my own (and our own) brain and tendency to pick the route of least resistance. I find that within myself, completely subconsciously, I’ll often choose the option that allows my brain to shut off: doing laundry instead of working on a project, going to the store instead of reading.
“‘To the vast majority of mankind nothing is more agreeable than to escape the need for mental exertion… To most people nothing is more troublesome than the effort of thinking.’ — James Bryce, Studies in History and Jurisprudence”
And more specifically she says,
“As with any program of exercise, Brain Building is not for the lazy. If someone sees no need in his life for mental exertion, he’s probably right. The kind of life he’s leading doesn’t require it. Couch potatoes don’t have to think; they are quite happy to sit and watch life roll by like the newsreel of an event taking place somewhere else. But it doesn’t have to be difficult, either. Whenever you begin a program of exercise, you start slowly, with a warm-up stretching period. If you are going to subject unused muscles to unaccustomed stress, then you start with a minimum of 10 to 20 minutes’ stretching. The same goes with building your brain power. Not that you haven’t been using your brain, but you have been using it in an undeliberate, unconscious kind of way…”
It was interesting to hear her say it so plainly, that mental exertion was a choice that could be valued by some and not by others. It clicked for me because I would wonder what made the difference between intellectual success versus failure—not that it could ever be so black and white. What is the difference between someone smarter (always challenging themselves, becoming better, gaining intelligence) and someone who doesn’t challenge themself (watching zone-out TV all, never second guessing their choices, choosing the path of least resistance)? I was curious as to what brought people to these very different outcomes. From what I’ve learned from this book, it seems to have been a very slow process, possibly decades long of small choices. I’ve always loved the quote, “Show me your last 1,000 days and I’ll show you why you are exactly where you are in life.” Marilyn’s writing seem to dive into this idea very well.
Speaking of previous topic of television, Marilyn very directly appoints you an exercise,
“Exercise: Each day for a week, write down every television show you watch and why. At the end of the week, look back your list and take stock. Are you watching television only because you didn’t feel like doing anything else? Is it an escape from reality? Are you better off now?”
All things considered, this book does have its flaws. After watching a handful of interviews immediately after finishing this book, it all made sense. Marilyn’s writing and personality is very opinionated. And while I definitely do agree with some of her points, I found agitation in others.
For example,
“Consider how you look to your employer or your immediate superior at work. How do you think you look when you bite into a cookie at your desk? How do you think you look when you brush your hair or fix your makeup in public? Like a person worth taking seriously? Would you come to work in your bathrobe? No, you dress with dignity for the office, but you can ruin the dignity by snippets of personal behavior that are out of place, and because of which, consciously or unconsciously, others pin labels on you.”
I understand part of what she means here: look nice, don’t be sloppy. But I’m happy to live in a work and life environment where casual dress is embraced and where intelligence outweighs if someone touches up their makeup in public. In the interview posted below, she outlines that if a woman dresses in an attractive way with full coverage makeup and an outfit that shows skin, that she couldn’t be taken seriously. To my understanding, it sounded like a very patriarchal response, not understanding the nuances and liberation of being able to do both: intelligence and attractiveness, to whatever their expression finds satisfactory. Back when Marilyn was born it was a very different time, and she readily acknowledges that as a female she was never encouraged to use her intelligence; however I wonder in what ways she still struggles with a less progressive mindset.
These very particular type of viewpoints are riddled throughout her book. I was especially surprised by the following,
“For many people, sleep has less to do with rest than with being a good excuse for interrupting an activity. Sleep is the perfect escape, even better than television; it’s an effective way to stop work on a project, stop an argument, or even stop living in the real world for a few hours. Let’s say you begin working on a project in the evening; perhaps you’re refinishing a table, balancing your checkbook, looking over some office papers, or reading a book. If you take yourself off to bed before you’re actually sleepy, then you’re not physically tired. You’re simply tired of the project. Unless you make a conscious decision to abandon it as not worth any more of your time — ever! — then continue with it. Abandoning it is bad for your attention span, bad for your powers of concentration, and that, in turn, affects your memory.”
I think that today we realize that everyone has a unique and respectable sleeping pattern. I know people who have to sleep 9 or 10 hours a night to feel normal. For myself, it’s 8 or else I’m vividly aware of how tired I am through the day. It’s usually no longer a race to the bottom to get the least amount of sleep. There are plenty of people today who wish that they could properly get something done, but sleep gets in the way. Maybe I live in a weird world, but I am at my most productive when I get 8 hours of sleep, and I usually have to force myself away from a project to do so.
But regardless, altogether this was a very informative and fascinating book. Definitely a book that I’m happy to have read and I feel as though it has positively changed my viewpoint on the brain and capacity. All-in-all, this book will help you question what you took for granted and better appreciate the potential within yourself.
As Marilyn cleverly states,
“Conundrums and riddles aside, this is one of the most common situations in everyday life — hanging on tightly to what one ‘knows’ instead of opening one’s mind and letting in fresh air of simple logic.”
And it’s probably the last few pages that are some of my favorite. Taking an aerial viewpoint of what we now know and fully understand, she reviews what it is that our brains should be at all times, open to the world and excited to learn,
“The well-built mind is open, not shut. It seeks to refine information into the truth, to deal with ideas, not ‘conclusions’ or ‘opinions.’ The well-built mind has dispensed with misconceptions, preconceptions, and even postconceptions. The well-built mind is eager to meet others like it, whether they agree or not. The well-built mind welcomes a refreshing discussion, disagreement and all, without arguing. The well-built mind is aware of the world’s infinite possibilities and reaches out in every direction. The well-built mind takes full responsibility for itself and its ideas and actions; it is objective, seeking only for reality and improvement, rejecting complacency and excuses. The well-built mind is a confident, growing, totally alive entity, with an expanding potential and a limitless future. And it can be yours.”
