Back

Sweat

May 25th, 2024

I just realized I haven't exercised my mind in quite a while.

I haven't strained it in quite a while. Or worked out the muscle. Really honed in and focused on something.

In fact, I go in circles a lot here. Why don't I try coming up with 10 new ideas everyday? It could be anything.

Okay. Here goes.

  1. Age limit on the presidency. We don't need an old guy being president when the majority age is a certain demographic.
  2. Representative democracy is not an effective governing system anymore. Media manipulation is an obvious sign of this and the fact that our media systems are so developed (TikTok, Reels, Shorts) that they are rewiring our brains and critical thinking skills are a sign of the times. We need education systems that combat this rewiring, destruction of attention spans, and other negative effects we don't even know about regarding our media systems.
  3. More research should be poured into the effects of phone screens on hormonal levels (serotonnin and cortisol.) If phone screen emissions are terrible for our bodies, why are we exposing ourselves to them?
  4. New technologies should be invested to create alternatives to screens. Humans are addicted to light sources and our bodies regulate itself in response to light sources. We should be investing in alternatives like candles and e-ink monitors.
  5. Humans should be approaching mental health from an epiphenomenal point of view. There's a chronic addiction to cognitive changes you can make consciously like self-help books like to espouse. It's obvious though through the mental health epidemic raging in the western world that this is clearly ineffective. The current psychiatric treatments have terrible remission rates. An entirely new paradigm should be applied, on I believe is very effective called "metabolic health." Diet, exercise, and sleep should be addressed before messing with psychiatric medication.
  6. Critical thinking is a difficult skill to teach. But is it even a skill? How does one learn the thought patterns associated with critical thinking? I am led to believe it's done through emulation. The question is: how do you balance critical thinking with executive function? And how do you come back into the habit of critical thinking?
  7. Structuring essays and articles should be done by addressing questions of the reader or audience. Keeping the hypothetical audience in mind is an exceedingly difficult task, and even more difficult when generating words out of thin air. The cognitive load of juggling multiple topics is very, very difficult. Perhaps it's best to talk to someone first, generate the ideas, then put the ideas to paper in the form of a dialogue. In the book The Shallows, it's said that language was spoken first, and that written language is a modification of the brain that allows us to think entirely of different concepts.
  8. I'm inclined to believe that memory should always be practiced. Memorizing poems and information makes for better brain synthesis. Active recall creates a healthier brain which is what we are built for. Relying on written word to stimulate and activate forgotten portions of the brain leads to slave-esque manufacturing of thoughts, where the user is pivoted and dragged around by the environment rather than cognition.
  9. The important of memory should be stressed everywhere. Nowadays, we have written word and even videos to remind us of how things are. Google has affected our memory banks much more than I've witnessed anyone acknowledge. Why remember facts when Google can tell you? It's also affected how often we talk to one another. Why ask a simple question when Google is at your fingertips?
  10. Information density is a forgotten topic of the 2010s. It's exceedingly important now, and that critical organ needs to be recognized as a problem. Limiting information intake for the day can give more cognitive strength to addressing critical thinking issues.
  11. Breadth and depth of thinking is ideal. But breadth is readily available in our day and age, so depth is valuable. Thinking critically is important and thinking in solely working memory rather than relying on the stimulation of words is a strong skillset.
  12. My grandmother always insisted on rote memorization. A lot of asian countries also teach this way. It's lauded in the west as a method that inhibits creativity, but is it really? More access to information in working memory, rather than relying on written word to stimulate thoughts means more access to critical thought that connects multiple bodies of information.