Smarter Tomorrow summary

So, to become an effective neurohacker, you’ll need to know your own mind. Just as no two snowflakes are the same, there is no other brain like yours. In fact, even if you’re an identical twin, you’ll differ, neurologically speaking, from your sibling. 

Some of the things that make your brain yours are things that you were born with. But, according to scientists, only 50 percent of your intelligence is determined by genetic factors. The other 50 percent comes from nongenetic factors, like your individual experiences and habits. This means that it’s possible to alter your brain depending on how you use it. Your brain is editable.

When she was in high school, the author knew a guy called Mark. 

At lunch one day, she watched him strike up a conversation with a group of friends. The conversation was about the potential of the internet. After getting the conversation going, Mark sat back. Occasionally, he’d interrupt to ask a question, or gently guide the conversation in new directions. This guy, the author noticed, was able to see the bigger picture very quickly, hold multiple things in his mind at once, and synthesize all the different arguments he heard. 

Imagine that you’re at a funeral, and for some perverse reason, you feel laughter bubbling up inside you. You’re thinking of something completely unrelated to the sad moment at hand. You glance around and see rows and rows of somber, tear-stained faces. If you laugh now, many of those people might never speak to you again. 

Luckily, you manage to stifle the laughter and keep a solemn expression. This is because you have something known as emotional self-regulation. Without it, you’d go through life reacting to things in the most inappropriate ways.

Occasionally, you’ll meet someone who’s a superhuman learner with a memory rivaling that of an elephant. They’ll be able to repeat a complex task after only seeing it once, or speak a foreign language in no time at all. 

But the rest of us have to work with what we’ve got. Thankfully, there are ways to improve our memories – which is good news, as fast learning and the ability to memorize have become more important than ever.

Creativity can seem like an enigmatic quality. We often think of creative inspiration as something that strikes us mysteriously. Poets speak of being visited by the Muse to explain flashes of inspiration that appear and then vanish before they know it. 

We often believe that creativity is something you inherently have – or don’t. You’re born an artist, or you’re not. The truth, however, might be a little more mundane. Creativity is actually something you can practice.