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Ask HN: How to train yourself to become a quick thinker?

23 points| kev6168 | 11 years ago | reply

By "quick", I mean within a very small amount of time, you are able to:

1. look at things from _many_ different perspectives quickly,

2. find/construct relationships between remote things quickly,

3. recall relevant knowledge/experience from memory quickly,

4. observe the environment and quickly grasp essentials about the situation,

How to train yourself to be better in this kind of "quick thinking"?

What are your recommendations of books/videos/courses? What are the necessary thinking habits/approaches/methodologies? What are the training methods/processes?

Note that here, if forced to choose, we are seeking the ability of "breadth and quantity" of our thoughts, not "depth and correctness". Of course we are not against the latter, but your recommendations should focus on "quickness".

24 comments

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[+] rayalez|11 years ago|reply
I don't think it's possible to literally speed up the way brain processes the information, neurons will probably fire and transmit the information at a constant rate.

So if we want to "think faster" we are tallking about:

- strengthening connections between the neurons

- learning new patterns, so that instead of reprocessing the information(reinventing ideas) brain would "cache" the familiar patterns as memories.

I guess either way, the solution to both things comes down to developing skill. Picking a type of problems and solving them a lot, until brain builds up the circuits for them.

I think that when a person "observes the environment and quickly grasps essentials about the situation" he is simply recognizing a familiar pattern, so to be better/faster at that you simply need to learn more patterns(experience). The same goes for the point 3 - the more often you use/recall some information, the better you will be at it.

Regarding the points 1 and 2 - I highly recommend a book "Serious Creativity" by Edward De Bono, learn and practice skills this book is explaining. This is the best book on creativity I've ever encountered, it addresses exactly these issues.

Besides that, a practical advice would be to remove things that slow you down. Remove anxiety, distractions, learn to focus better. Learning meditation is very useful for that.

[+] kev6168|11 years ago|reply
Practice a lot to get very familiar with many patterns, to a degree that those patterns become second nature so it takes little time to recognize them. Also thanks for the book recommendation.
[+] poppup|11 years ago|reply
Good question. In my view, thinking fast has to do with how well you can process emotion. Do you get stuck in the headlights or do you dive out of the way of the truck coming at you?

That is not a question of preparedness mentally. It is a question of emotional preparedness. As in, how do you process fear?

As to the ability to process information, that is also related to emotion, as in, what do you care to pay attention to and what do you readily discard?

Knowing how you feel and then being capable of processing emotions quickly as they arise is probably the most important skill there is for us humans and that is true whether you lived during the Rennaissance or in a cave or if you work at google.

If you are interested in more about the subject of becoming more capable, let me know. I am writing a book about it presently and would love to share it with you and get your feedback. The results have been pretty great. People say that focusing on capabilities makes them feel lighter and younger. I also feel lighter, my thoughts flow at lightning speed, making me more prepared for change. I can be found at poppitup on twitter. Just follow the cat.

[+] georgerobinson|11 years ago|reply
I would like to second this thought. I'm currently doing a masters degree and the examinations are very different to those from undergraduate. Rather, the exam papers are all about applying your knowledge and experience in order to solve unfamiliar questions on familiar content. Therefore, when you write an exam paper you must keep calm. If you let your emotions take control of the situation it can be very hard to recover.

For example: I sat an exam just two days ago when one question offered an unfamiliar ordering of events in an incomplete version of the Paxos consensus algorithm. The question was looking for candidates to identify situations under which the protocol would fail. There is a huge amount of pressure to figure it out in the 20 minutes you have. Getting stressed out and context switching between questions WILL prevent you from getting the answer right. Stay cool, think clearly, and 9/10 you will get the answer.

Conversely, there was a lady sitting next to me in one of my exams this morning. The questions were challenging and largely unexpected. I could see that she was holding back tears and frantically trying to find questions she thought she could answer. As awful as it sounds, she let her emotions take control of the situation and as a result lost at least 30 minutes where she could have been working her way through the exam getting at least partial marks on questions.

I think taking control of your emotions is something you can learn. Whether it is easy or not probably depends on the individual. I am no expert. For me, a masters degree has really helped me take control of high stress situations. I am much more capable at identifying causation, eliminating correlation and finding the answer than I ever was before.

[+] kev6168|11 years ago|reply
emotion and feeling! this is a wonderful angle to look at the ability of "quickness in thinking". I always suspect there is more to the 'hard' portion(knowledge/experience/skills) that contributes to one's quickness. The 'soft' part might be _more_ important. This is one question needed to be studied. Another question is how to tap into and train the emotion/feeling part to modify/increase/utilize it, or is it mostly innate?

About the "quickness" I am asking for, If a gun is pointed at me and I am forced to come up with an analogy, I would say I am asking for the "quickness" in James Bond's behaviors and handling of situations, not the thoughtfulness and depth of Sherlock Holmes (although he was not slow for sure), if you know what I mean. Sorry for the bad analogy.

very interested in your book, will definitely follow it.

[+] achow|11 years ago|reply
Take up Yoga.

My personal experience is I benefited on the points that you have mentioned and then some more. Would sound corny but the best way to describe the experience is like what was shown in the movie 'Limitless' - it was of course not to that extent, but after doing Yoga for few weeks I felt as if some fog was lifted from my brain (which prior to that I didn't even realize was there), I was able to connect things much more efficiently, do pattern matching and all at subconscious level. Also, I realized I could remember long numbers (ex. ph no.) much more easily - I was never partial to mathematics right from childhood. If I have to rationalize it then I would think its not only because of exercises, inverted postures (which allows more blood flow to your upper regions of the body) etc. but also due to breathing exercises - which not only helps your lungs but brain as well.

There are scientific work around Yoga and improvement on cognitive abilities, one that I could find easily: The Acute Effects of Yoga on Executive Function http://kch.illinois.edu/research/labs/neurocognitive-kinesio...

[+] kev6168|11 years ago|reply
Very interesting. I have been thinking in taking Yoga class for years. Might be the time to start it now.
[+] cskakun|11 years ago|reply
I think it's all practice, and a little natural talent. Then again I can't say I'm the fastest thinker. That is, I don't know. I've never compared myself.

What you're talking about here takes practice and a super powered brain. But at the same time, maybe you need to be more specific. I ask myself these questions sometimes as well. Try learning a diverse skill set, rounding yourself out. At the same time, know and accept the brain's limitations. For example, you wouldn't start a car in 5th gear. But those are the kinds of things we do with our psychology all the time. Like multitasking, stressing ourselves out, fatiguing our brains, eating shitty food, breathing poorly.

But why is quickness so important?

Drugs, in the right doses, can sometimes help you do this.

Maybe understanding "why" would help as well.

[+] kev6168|11 years ago|reply
about the why, I think the ability to think quickly (in wide breadth and large quantity, even with some shallowness due to time constraint) becomes more and more important in modern times, compared to, say, the Renaissance days, because the vast amount of information available, the increasingly complicated and complex situations we face in work place and daily life, and the fast pace of everything moving at, the subsequent demand for people to handle all these.
[+] Mikhail_Edoshin|11 years ago|reply
A few thoughts and observations:

- Thinking in strict sense is slow by nature. The only way to make it faster is to avoid it, that is to simply know the stuff. The more you know, the faster you think, that is do what looks like thinking.

- Emotions may disrupt any expert; you'll forget what is 3 by 5. There's a comment here already that mentions it, and I second it, because I was that guy. One of best decisions in my life was going to a shrink :)

- There's a structured approach to problem solving; formulate the problem (current state), the goal (the desired state), list alternatives, weigh them, choose. This may sound obvious, but a lot of otherwise smart people do not do this and simply pick the first idea that pops to their minds. Changing to structured problem solving helps immensely; it's actually used as a therapy.

- Some high-level heuristics may help: six thinking hats, TRIZ (although this one doesn't think it's a heuristic), morphological analysis, and so on. Their primary purpose is exactly that: quickly generate many different ideas and views and make sure to cover as many important bases as possible. Each has a special flavor; TRIZ, for example, aims for elegant minimalist solutions.

- Every blessing has a curse. I once read "Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team" (it was made into the "Munich" movie) and there was an episode when a Soviet special agent got killed primarily because he was a trained special agent who is always ready and aware of what's going on. Quick thinking looks very useful, but there will be situations when it isn't.

[+] kev6168|11 years ago|reply
Structured approaches and systematic methods to generate many different views, these are probably the best ways to achieve fast thinking and getting good enough results in work/daily life endeavors.

Having a system in place and becoming one's second nature (through training) will help one to remain guided and calm in heated/hectic situations(James Bond?), basically turn one's mind into some kind of machine which runs fast and emotion free. Machine might not produce _the_ best solution, but it can produce a lot quickly (hopefully some are good and creative). Frankly I believe in today's society one needs more of the quickness to be successful(in a worldly sense).

[+] jonjonBoy|11 years ago|reply
Sleep is number one. Without it, you will think much much slower. When you are deprived, parts of your brain shut off and 'rest'.

Once that's taken care off, stimulant is another way. Coffee in general is a widely accepted way to accelerate thinking.

As some people mentioned, general anxiety or fear/emotion could impact thinking both positively and negatively. A healthy dose of cortisol could improve performance but too much of it especially if you get into panic/terror mode would impede fast thinking.

Fasting once you past through the low glucose phase could actually help assuming you are not one of those who are plagued with persistent brain fog due to lack of fuel during a fast.

Toxic load matters. If your body chemicals are out of whack or intoxicated it might cause brain inflammation which would impact your thinking.

But more importantly the baseline is genetics - how your brain is wired really matters. The amount of grey matters & glia along with the unique way your body myelinate connections impact how fast you could think.

Nootropics - could help to a certain extend but they ALL have side effects, some permanent so I don't recommend them.

[+] arisAlexis|11 years ago|reply
You need to think of significance of factors here. I would say they are the following in this order:

General Intelligence, Stress Level, Familiarity with the task at hand, Good night's sleep, Coffee/tea/other stimulants, Nutrition, Exercise

I think the single most important in this list is stress levels which can really lower your iq by dozens of points at a particular moment. Everything except the first is modifiable.

[+] freedevbootcamp|11 years ago|reply
I think everyone has the capacity to be a quick thinker.

The two main components to being a quick thinker are not what you think.

The first one is a competitive spirit. If you have ever played any sports and you have felt the desire to win, this will get you half way to thinking quickly. Train yourself to be able to look at the problem and give up many different possibilities rather than just the smoking gun fix. Sometimes in a enterprise environment fixing the smoking gun is the most inconvenient. Being under pressure and using the competitive spirit can be one of the most satisfying jobs.

The second one is know your environment. You have to know your environment from top to bottom and everything in between. You have to be able to visualize the problem from inside and out in order to narrow the problem down to its core. The first thing you do at a new job is to find the documentation for everything and study it.

This vision of the environment could come from many different crafts whether it is a Network Engineer, Software Developer, DBA, or Systems Engineer. But you have to be in a position of knowledge about the entire infrastructure.

In order to recall knowledge/experiences from memory quickly you have to be an expert pattern matcher. Sometimes its a new problem that has never been discovered or documented but very rarely. Search google for the main topic and if you find a gazillion answers you know its a common problem. If you cant find anything you know someone has changed something or broke something and is more than likely a misconfiguration. How do you gain the knowledge in the first place? Reading. Reading books and blogs and stack overflow and everything you can get your hands on. You wont retain all the knowledge but you will remember that you found a fix for it at one time or another and can search for it again quickly.

[+] kev6168|11 years ago|reply
I totally agree on the "competitive spirit" point. If one has a strong desire to take control and to win, the needed energy and sense of emergency will come quickly.

To expand on this point, I think in addition to the competitive spirit, a carefree mindset also helps to keep cool, make you to step back a little bit, to think quickly in unconventional ways.

I am not so sure about your second point. I understand more knowledge and more experience will help us, but is more studying of documentations/technical know-hows the best way to spend our time in the aim of improving our fasting thinking ability? I have experienced too many occasions in which much less knowledgeable/skilled people came on top in businesses/arguments/political competitions.

[+] MichaelCrawford|11 years ago|reply
take up rock climbing.
[+] kev6168|11 years ago|reply
care to elaborate on it a little more? thanks.