Okay; increasing IQ is, where possible at all, very difficult.
What other, perhaps more specific, cognitive skills with practical value could we try to enhance? A lot of debiasing techniques discussed before fall in this category, but in very narrow ranges of application.
Other cognitive skills are more general-purpose. For instance, are there any known, tested means of improving recall from long-term memory, or improving cognitive focus?
If improving general intelligence is difficult, let’s go for any low-hanging fruit first.
I would guess attention/focus/akrasia would be the best target area, as what we want now is very definitely different from what was useful in ancestral environment and there’s no obvious reason why we cannot focus more.
Regarding recall from long-term memory: Write it down!
I know a person who actually does that. That recall and precision is greatly improved should be obvious. The problem lies more in acquiring the habit of actually writing everything down if it looks important.
I envision to build something electronic for me, because I hate handwriting. Also that would add search capability.
Regarding recall from long-term memory: Write it down!
By this, do you mean that the act of recording the information will itself improve recall, independent of later reference to the recorded information? I recall hearing at least anecdotal evidence for such, but I’m not sure how well documented the effect is.
Of course, even without such an effect writing important things down in general is a good habit to acquire.
Okay; increasing IQ is, where possible at all, very difficult.
What other, perhaps more specific, cognitive skills with practical value could we try to enhance? A lot of debiasing techniques discussed before fall in this category, but in very narrow ranges of application.
Other cognitive skills are more general-purpose. For instance, are there any known, tested means of improving recall from long-term memory, or improving cognitive focus?
If improving general intelligence is difficult, let’s go for any low-hanging fruit first.
I would guess attention/focus/akrasia would be the best target area, as what we want now is very definitely different from what was useful in ancestral environment and there’s no obvious reason why we cannot focus more.
Regarding recall from long-term memory: Write it down!
I know a person who actually does that. That recall and precision is greatly improved should be obvious. The problem lies more in acquiring the habit of actually writing everything down if it looks important.
I envision to build something electronic for me, because I hate handwriting. Also that would add search capability.
By this, do you mean that the act of recording the information will itself improve recall, independent of later reference to the recorded information? I recall hearing at least anecdotal evidence for such, but I’m not sure how well documented the effect is.
Of course, even without such an effect writing important things down in general is a good habit to acquire.
I was actually thinking more about looking it up later, i.e. extending your long term memory via paper and pencil.
Although I can also report that I remember stuff better if I wrote it down.