becoming smart is easy, actually — Transcript

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1. 0:00so you want to become smart in most of
2. 0:02the world you're told that it takes 12
3. 0:04years of school plus 4 years of college
4. 0:06plus 6 years of graduate school to
5. 0:08become smart but what you actually
6. 0:10become is homeless that's not even a
7. 0:13joke but on the bright side when you
8. 0:15make a Reddit post about how you can't
9. 0:17get a job you can do it in perfect
10. 0:19English if you haven't guessed by the
11. 0:21title becoming smart is actually very
12. 0:23easy even if you think your genetics
13. 0:25make you dumb if you compare yourself to
14. 0:27every other animal you're actually
15. 0:29pretty over powered when people like you
16. 0:31and me say we want to get smarter it
17. 0:33means a bunch of things we want to learn
18. 0:36useful skills ideally skills that make
19. 0:38money we want to be good at solving
20. 0:40problems hopefully for money we want to
21. 0:42get better geds and learn difficult
22. 0:44subjects to make more money and also to
23. 0:47flex on people and lastly we want to
24. 0:49sound smart in conversation just enough
25. 0:51so people respect you but not too much
26. 0:54to the point where people think you're a
27. 0:55nerd the problem is most advice on the
28. 0:57Internet is so vague and philosophical
29. 1:00that even if it works the only people
30. 1:02who could actually follow it are Oprah
31. 1:04and Socrates and if you instead look for
32. 1:07specific advice that you can actually
33. 1:08try right now this is what you get eat
34. 1:11blueberries cuz they brain food drink
35. 1:13black coffee exercise sleep more take IQ
36. 1:18tests listen to classical music these
37. 1:20things sound good but at some point you
38. 1:22have to you know actually learn stuff
39. 1:25besides even in the past there have been
40. 1:27some Geniuses who have spent the whole
41. 1:28day sitting at a desk desk getting 2 to
42. 1:304 hours of sleep a day so what can you
43. 1:33actually do to get smarter that's not
44. 1:35just the same six brain hacks from a
45. 1:37Facebook post copied and pasted from a
46. 1:39Wiki how article inspired by a quote
47. 1:41spray painted on a New York Subway wall
48. 1:43the main thing you need to do is read
49. 1:45what kind of reading it depends fiction
50. 1:48is good for learning to read faster and
51. 1:50it gives you a better vocabulary also if
52. 1:52you read a lot of dialogue it makes you
53. 1:54feel like you have friends but most
54. 1:56people go straight for non-fiction which
55. 1:59indeed is the key to being able to
56. 2:01casually drop interesting knowledge in
57. 2:03conversations for example just by
58. 2:05reading this book you can come off to
59. 2:07anyone in conversation as someone who
60. 2:09knows history the key is to not be
61. 2:11obnoxious about it crazy how we evolved
62. 2:14from chimpanzees right well actually
63. 2:16evolution is nonlinear and several human
64. 2:19like species inhabited Earth
65. 2:21simultaneously none of which could even
66. 2:23be remotely considered as chimpanzees
67. 2:26while this is considered polite by the
68. 2:28standards of a YouTube comment section
69. 2:30in real life saying well actually before
70. 2:33proving someone wrong will make you
71. 2:34instantly unlikable change the well to
72. 2:37an easy and now we're talking let's redo
73. 2:40that conversation crazy how we evolved
74. 2:42from chimpanzees right it is crazy right
75. 2:45you know I was reading the other day and
76. 2:47apparently humans and
77. 2:49chimpanzees I always thought we evolved
78. 2:51from them but I guess we just evolved
79. 2:53side by side you can be smart while also
80. 2:56being humble and also sounding like you
81. 2:58touch grass the key is to teach people
82. 3:01what you know without making them sound
83. 3:03dumb this way people will actually learn
84. 3:06from you which will make them see you as
85. 3:08smart and respectable now how do you
86. 3:10find these books it's actually really
87. 3:13easy you don't have to read the same
88. 3:15five books everyone tells you to read
89. 3:17just think of a topic you want to learn
90. 3:19about like cleaning now Google books
91. 3:22about cleaning here's one that looks
92. 3:24good usually these books cost money but
93. 3:27if your finger slips you might
94. 3:28accidentally end up on this website and
95. 3:30you might accidentally search for the
96. 3:32title of the book and by chance click on
97. 3:34the first link and oh no accidentally
98. 3:37downloaded a file and opened it with the
99. 3:40appropriate ebook viewer well now that
100. 3:42you have the book you'll also find that
101. 3:44not only can you pick out interesting
102. 3:46tidbits to use in conversations but you
103. 3:48can also learn many useful skills there
104. 3:51are 10 things you should know before you
105. 3:52learn a skill one unless you practice
106. 3:55the skill your brain will think it's
107. 3:57useless and forget it two you only have
108. 3:59have to know 20% of the knowledge to
109. 4:02master 80% of the skill so I guess we
110. 4:05could just move on this is called the
111. 4:07learning curve it's a graph of how good
112. 4:09you get at a skill over time as you can
113. 4:11see just by practicing a little bit you
114. 4:14can make a lot of progress in the
115. 4:15beginning but you have to practice no
116. 4:17one ever learned how to tie a tie by
117. 4:20watching how to tie a tie you only learn
118. 4:22how to tie a tie by watching how to tie
119. 4:24a tie while tying a tie the same applies
120. 4:27to reading books only make you smarter
121. 4:29if you give your brain a reason to
122. 4:31remember the stuff in the book so once
123. 4:33you read the chapter on cleaning a
124. 4:34bedroom go ahead and clean a bedroom
125. 4:37doesn't even have to be your bedroom
126. 4:38just clean one and now you'll never
127. 4:41forget it but let's just imagine that's
128. 4:43something that you can't practice right
129. 4:44now like imagine you're reading a book
130. 4:47about cars and then you see this diagram
131. 4:49of how to jump start a dead car with a
132. 4:51good car ideally you'll read about it
133. 4:54and then go practice it but not everyone
134. 4:56has two cars lying around to practice on
135. 4:58but you can still practice it by just
136. 5:00imagining imagine the moment where
137. 5:02you'll need to know how to jump start a
138. 5:04car put yourself in the situation find a
139. 5:07video and pretend that's your car by
140. 5:09imagining the whole process from start
141. 5:11to finish you just convinced your brain
142. 5:14that you used all that information and
143. 5:16now you'll remember it meanwhile the
144. 5:18person who just looked at the diagram
145. 5:20and tried to memorize it still won't
146. 5:22know what to do if they ever had to jump
147. 5:24start a car this is how you get smart
148. 5:27use everything you learn and if you can
149. 5:29imagine yourself in the moment where
150. 5:31it'll be useful this is basically how
151. 5:34the entire school system works you learn
152. 5:36a piece of information and because it'll
153. 5:38be like 15 years before you actually use
154. 5:40it your teacher creates an imaginary
155. 5:42situation where that information is
156. 5:45useful that is a test an exam that has
157. 5:48questions on that exact piece of
158. 5:50information and if you get it wrong you
159. 5:52fail or in South Korea you get prison
160. 5:55time just kidding that's only if you
161. 5:58cheat this is usually in enough to make
162. 6:00your brain at least attempt to remember
163. 6:02the information the only problem is once
164. 6:04the test is over your brain says it's
165. 6:06not useful anymore and you forget it
166. 6:08some people think repetition or space
167. 6:10repetition or studying in intervals or
168. 6:13mind mapping will help them get better
169. 6:15grades and learn faster but in reality
170. 6:17doing practice questions will give you
171. 6:19the most results because they simulate
172. 6:22the actual situation in which you'll
173. 6:24need to use what you learned if you
174. 6:25don't have any practice questions make
175. 6:27your own and convince yourself that the
176. 6:29stakes are high like pretend that you're
177. 6:32hanging off a cliff by one arm and
178. 6:33someone's there to pull you up but only
179. 6:35if you can name all the parts of a human
180. 6:38cell learning information and making it
181. 6:41seem useful to your brain is all you
182. 6:43need to get smart and this is why
183. 6:45textbooks are the S tier format for
184. 6:47becoming smart as fast as possible
185. 6:50there's no fluff no handholding no
186. 6:52distractions just pure information and a
187. 6:55bunch of practice questions and if you
188. 6:57can't solve them you have to flip all
189. 6:59the way to page XXX VV I II in the
190. 7:03appendix to get help textbooks aren't
191. 7:05for the Casual learner because it's not
192. 7:07as fun as watching a YouTube video on
193. 7:09the topic and forgetting it all an hour
194. 7:11later but if you're ever up to the
195. 7:13challenge there is a website you might
196. 7:15accidentally end up on where you could
197. 7:17accidentally download free textbooks on
198. 7:19any subject you want but before you do
199. 7:22that I'm collecting donations in the
200. 7:23form of subscribes to fund the next
201. 7:25video
202. 7:27[Music]