A mind is a terrible thing to waste

GARY NORTH'S TIP OF THE WEEK


Gary North's Tip of the Week - January 13, 2007 Brain Training
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 After I turned 45, my memory skills began to fade.  I
could not recall things as fast as before.  This is common
at age 45.  Fortunately, the Web has helped me compensate
in my writing.  Wiki is a wonder.

 A recent study reveals that there is a tremendous
payoff for simple mental exercising.  "The Washington Post"
(Dec. 20, 2006) reports on mental exercise vs. physical.

 If anything, the study suggests, there is a
 bigger payoff to mental exercise, because the
 brief training sessions seemed to confer enormous
 benefits as many as five years later. That would
 be as if someone went to the gym Monday through
 Friday for the first two weeks of the new year,
 did no exercise for five years, and still saw
 significant physical benefits in 2012. . . .

 Each of the groups being trained had 10 sessions,
 each lasting an hour to 75 minutes, and each
 session presented progressively more challenging
 problems. Compared with the control group, those
 who got memory training did 75 percent better on
 memory tasks five years later, those who got the
 reasoning training did 40 percent better on
 reasoning tasks, and those who got the speed
 training did 300 percent better than the control
 group.

 The study group was for people age 65 and older.  Some
were in their nineties.

 There was a warning that applies to me.

 To reap the benefits, [Sherri] Willis said,
 people need to get outside their comfort zones.
 For someone who likes to solve crossword puzzles,
 it is important to make sure the puzzles get
 harder with time -- or to start playing chess.
 Someone who hates to play games, she said, should
 find something else that stretches the mind.

          http://snipurl.com/braintrain

 I hate games.  I hate puzzles.  I also hate learning a
new piece of software.  But I'll do the latter if there is
a big enough benefit.  I hope that's enough.

 My tip: Learn a new program this year.  It can be
freeware.  Master it.  Put it to use.

 Then do it again next year.

Gary "Pumping Digits" North

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