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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
Listen to the Intro
Smarter Tomorrow summary
Elizabeth R. Ricker
How 15 Minutes of Neurohacking a Day Can Help You Work Better, Think Faster, and Get More Done
19 mins
Brief summary
Smarter Tomorrow by Elizabeth R. Ricker is a guide to using technology, artificial intelligence, and automation to enhance our lives and create a better future. It presents actionable tips for staying relevant and competitive in the rapidly changing digital landscape.
Table of Contents
Smarter Tomorrow
Summary of 6 key ideas
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Key idea 1 of 6
Neurohacking involves self-knowledge and self-experimentation.
You’ve probably heard the term “life hack.” It’s something that allows you to jump ahead in life without too much effort – a shortcut, in other words.
Neurohacking, then, means looking for shortcuts to improve mental capability. By understanding how the brain works, neurohackers can improve their cognitive skills and reflexes, or seek to relieve psychological disorders.
This brings us to another context for the word “hack”: the computer hacker. Just as hackers have to be intimately familiar with the computer systems they’re trying to infiltrate, neurohackers must become experts on their own personal systems: their brains.
Becoming a neurohacker means learning about your own, marvelous, one-of-a-kind supercomputer. This is where neurohacking differs from traditional self-help. Rather than relying on blanket prescriptions and advice, it requires truly getting to know – and experimenting on – yourself.
The key message here is: Neurohacking involves self-knowledge and self-experimentation.
Neurohackers take a DIY scientist’s approach – they measure the brain’s capabilities and test solutions to improve them.
To learn about your brain, you’ll need to measure and track its progress in the areas you’re seeking to improve. For example, if you think your memory could use some work, then you’ll need to test your memory skills and record them over time.
Happily, there’s no better moment than the present to do this! We live in the age of free, self-tracking apps that record everything from language learning to memory recall. Self-tracking can also be used to detect other things – environmental or physical – that might be impairing your mental performance.
Take the case of Mark Drangsholt, a clinician and scientist. In 2014, he complained to his doctor that he was suffering from terrible brain fog – periods when he’d have lapses of concentration and memory. At first, his doctor was unable to help, so Drangsholt took matters into his own hands.
After using direct-to-consumer companies to gather personal cognitive, genetic, and blood data, Drangsholt returned to his doctor. Together, with all of this info in hand, they discovered the cause: narrowed blood vessels in a key area of Drangsholt’s brain. Without this DIY approach and self-knowledge, his problem may have gone unsolved.
It’s this self-knowledge that gives us the power to hack our mental abilities. In the following blinks, we’ll look at how to put it to work.
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What is Smarter Tomorrow about?
Smarter Tomorrow (2021) shows you how to upgrade your brain using a technique called neurohacking. You’ll learn how to improve your memory, creativity, emotional regulation, and what’s known as “executive functioning” through self-testing and experimentation – all backed up with insights from neuroscience.
Who should read Smarter Tomorrow?
- Thinkers looking to improve their cognitive skills
- Budding neuroscientists and brain nerds
- Anyone looking to keep up with modern science
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