/braingains/ general

Learn an instrument. I play violin and piano, and take fish oil every day. It's basically one of the best things to do for your mental development.

Is 23 too late to learn an instrument? Feel like I missed the boat for that hobby.

It's never too late to learn anything, brah.

Hope you're right, getting out of a depressive rut.

It can be harder if you start later, but that doesn't mean it's impossible.

I teach guitar for a living. You'd be surprised how many of my students are over 50

>I go on /g/ and look for topics in CS that I'm not familiar with and then read about them on wikipedia
>A close friend is a competitive debater, so he's been teaching me how to make good arguments in exchange for me helping him with GMAT math
>Meditate
>Sleep more

>Meditate

I do this, it helps. You notice when you fall out of practice too.

Right? You get better and better at not thinking and just sensing your surroundings the more you do it.

Not only that, but in my own reactions as well.

Holy shit am I more of a sperglord when I go a while without meditating. It's incredible how different shit feels.

Have you done anything with machine learning?

Not at the moment. I've been mostly interested in microarchitectures and operating system development. AI and machine learning is next on my list, though.

I'm about to start working on my car on my own. I want to start learning about installing and fixing parts. I'm also trying to read more often. Any suggestions for reading?

"Suggestions" as in "what to read."

What are you looking to read?
Philosophy, fiction, history ?

>Stacking and organizing blocks regardless is something that needs attention and brain power

Shitposting does too.

Are working from the ground up or are experimenting with the Linux kernel? I'm interested in learning low level os stuff but I'm sure where to start.

Studying for STEP 2 CK. Did like 140 minutes of anki today. Brain is kill.

Reading, playing music, taking every possible opportunity to socialize, amd psychedelics

Is the difference significant on nootropics? Idk if it's worth the money

I guess you're right. I was just laughing cause it sounded childish.

regardless, the thing about tetris is that the game stays the same. I think if you had more complex block puzzles, like "fit these 10 pieces in this shape/space" then it got more difficult you'd be on to something. spatial advancement. i think tetris could become too "automatic" and learned. you want to force adaptation, not necessarily perfect the game

I'm getting back in the dating game and learning to play. So far I've scored 1. Goal's 3 and choose one of those to go steady with.

A 50 day supply of piracetam and choline costs about 30$. Oxiracetam adds a bit more I'm not sure off the top of my head. It's definitely worth it to me. My memory and recall is much better now and it's not just limited to when I started taking the drugs.

Ground up--developing a toy unix system in C and x86. I recommend getting well versed in hardware and assembly languages before tackling low level OS stuff.

Any good lectures on youtube? Been listening to alan watts and terrence mckenna a lot lately. I know alot of you lot are straight arrows and probably hatez these kind if anti establishment types but maybe I'll find some other rational people like myself here.

>I was just laughing cause it sounded childish.

It seems that way, but depending on how far you're gone in adulthood, depending on if you've binged on drugs for a while and are getting off of it, the simplest shit will help to some extent.

You could definitely try out more complex ones for sure.

I like working with C , but assembly looks like gibberish to me. Ty for the advice good luck with your endeavors.

D/o/n't do this, trust me.

Likewise. Try learning MIPS assembly first--it's MUCH more approachable than x86 or even ARM.

if your car looks like its got some space in the engine bay then go for it. car repair is KINDA like a puzzle (x piece attaches to y piece which connects the z) my first car was a 79 malibu and i had to fix shit on it all the time but there was plenty of room for me to get my hands and tools in there (ty small block :[ ) newer cars dont have as much room and getting to one specific part will probably require removing at least two other things. but fuck it thats where you learn.

as far as books go, read moby dick, meditations, and notes from underground.

Reading the Veeky Forums 100

Feels really fucking good getting back into fiction

Any opinon on Vyvanse ?

I know some guy who can sell it to me for cheap so I'm wondering wether I should take them.

turns my friend who is on them into a monotone, soulless zombie. He focuses though

Any book recommendations?

Wow, gayest fucking post ever.

Kill you're self fagget.

Apply yourself user

Actually lift fagget.
>Next

I have a script for 60mg. It's pretty good recreationally speaking it's not as good as addy but for getting stuff done it's better imo. It's a lot smoother and cleaner than adderal and you don't get that tunnel vision as bad. The comedown isn't nearly as bad either. How much is he selling them for?

The Stranger is amazing, it should definitely be next on your list. What have you read off that list so far?

How do I meditate? Is it literally just sitting down and not thinking about anything?

Moby Dick
Crime and Punishment
Catcher in the Rye
Animal Farm
1984
Lord of the Flies
Huck Finn

Half of infinite jest. Damn that novel is dense

Just sitting and doing nothing, whether you're thinking or not. Or hell, you could stand I suppose. Depends on preference really.

ok here's what i did it worked pretty well

>get hit by fan
>suffer traumatic brain injury
>recover
>realize i kicked death's ass and develop a fuckton of confidence
>realize i worried about way too much shit and i'm gonna die anyway so embrace nihilism with a smile on my face

Nah man, you should always push yourself to learn new things throughout your life. I'm thinking about learning guitar myself.

it did not, however, give me the ability to remember to proof-read.

van*

... Tetris isn't a game that requires mental effort. Like, at all.

im so sorry for what happened to you but when i read the second part to your comment i lost it

...

thanks user

don't be sorry man, i'm glad it happened. toughened me up. :)

Braingains are a meme

the brain is plastic. gains are in its nature

Damn this sounds useful, being a monk that is physically and mentally fit sounds so nice. Sometimes I just want to abandon this world and join them.

Read Frege's Foundations of Arithmetic, since you probably don't really know what the number 1 is.

what do mean

How is infinite jest?

naturalthinker.net/trl/texts/Frege,Gottlob/Frege, Gottlob - The Foundations of Arithmetic (1953) 2Ed_ 7.0-2.5 LotB.pdf

I'm a grad student. Doing some heavy QMC numerics for a many-body QHE problem.

What are some good nootropics and microdosing drugs for social gains?

I don't have anxiety but nothing comes smooth for me if its not with my friends. Since I'm scared to fail I never bother. Is there anything I could take to fix my crippling social issues?

I've heard 10-25ug of LSD works wonders, same for mushrooms but I don't remember the dosage for that.

I've never done psychedelics though. I've also heard LSD makes you shit like crazy and your stomach gets upset so it's probably not the best for gains.

I've never heard any of those things, and at 10ug there are no psychedelic effects, you shouldn't feel high at all

Studying
Reading
Writing

that's really all there is to it bros, get on khan academy, invest in an ebook reader, and write a weekly article

don't forget to socialize and have in-depth conversations when possible

What's the point in all this fit?

none whatsoever, totally useless stuff

you can become a genius by just taking nootropics and playing brain-enhancing video games

Khan university
Not exactly in the vein of what you've been listening to, but it's educational as fuck. Takes maybe a while to really get into, but it's great when you do.

Does being a college community student count as brain gains...

Still practicing 汉语
Hit a bit of a wall I just don't understand the use of 从 and it's been confusing me on practicing words on travel

>How to make brain gains
>Do said task that what you want to good at
>Become good at it

I've heard n-back training is pretty much useless, but nootropics can be useful

check out slaughter-house 5
fun and quick read

M E D I T A T I O N

This is the only thing you need to train daily in order to get them massive brain gains.

meditation has done nothing for me. i need to move my body to feel any kind of transcendence.

lifting has basically been my fucking zen. it's incredible.

Train harder. Just like lifting meditation requires hard work.

im getting a phd in bioengineering and drinking a quart of motor oil every day

There's an interesting one on peak where you have to like remove different shaped blocks to make then look like a picture. It's sort of like tetris on roids.

N back training just allows you to focus and keep multiple ideas in your head.

I think chess, and then video games like strategy and fps would probably tie in with dual n back. There's another similar one where you memorise some stuff, then do some unrelated task, then recall.

All these things are meant to make you better at multitasking and so decision making.

Daily reminder not to neglect "Mind Gains" too, by this I mean trying to improve your mental outlook, confronting your fears and anxieties and negative personality traits

If you don't have a really good memory, take lots of pictures and notes. Plenty of people fuck up in fitting back together a lot of cars, and I hear it helps people work out how shit fits together.

If we're talking newer cars there's quite a scene around opening up the electronics bits too. So that might be of interest.

Does this also include playing tetris at high speed ?
Like 3 blocks per second.

i see no benefit to me. i've already found the components of my happiness, and they don't involve being still.

Studying neuroscience, meditating and dropping acid (On my acid trips I'm usually listening to and contemplating buddhist philosophy or brain chemistry and how it makes us "us"".

that's not really necessary. i've already found the components of my happiness, and although they will always need improvement, they do not and will not ever involve being still of body.

thanks for delaying my first post for 3 minutes, fourchyan.

How is the acid time dilation?

I listen to shit at increased speed, I'm semi interested if I could go even faster with some psilocybin or lsd or similar.

I drink a shit ton of alcohol

Time is weird as fuck on acid. It got me watching a video on youtube about a theory based on blackholes which suggests that time has already happened; and the universe exists as a 2d object in which everything has happened already. We are like a projection which relatively perceives time to be flowing.

I find that 5 minutes feels like 30 mins sometimes, the other day I went in to talk to my brother every 5 minutes but for me I thought it was 30 minutes.

Yesterday I had my first bad trip after 8 good trips. The acid seemed shit so I smoked some weed (Not smoked weed in years), it triggered the acid and I started getting crazy visuals. This triggered my heart (or so it seemed) to start beating crazy, I felt like I was going to have a heartattack and it sent me paranoid and panicing I was going to have a heart attack.

It was horrible and I won't be having any acid again for a few months. I think it's because my chest is sore and tight from lifting and it felt like an anxiety attack; that and also I've read weed + LSD is a bad combination. I tested the blotter with an Ehlrich test so it's definitely LSD.

am i the only one here who wants to remain in reality as much as possible?

I looked into that a few weeks ago. It has potential, as in, maybe someday they'll develop a kind of training based on this that will make good results. So far, though, the data, IF it even show benefits, shows only slight gains, while N-back training is a lot of work and also, as you said, stressful.
I mean, you probably won't lose anything by trying it out, and its miles better than any videogame if you want to improve your working memory, but don't expect too much.

What is reality? The entire thing exists in your head.

Your eyes pick up lightwaves which travel to your thalamus. Your thalamus transmit the data to your visual cortex, which sends it back to your Thalamus which has already got an imagination/prediction of the world already. The two compare data to provide you with your reality.

When you take LSD your brain opens new pathways which allow parts of the brain which never interact to start talking to each other. This effects your perceived reality and changes it.

You're in another reality now. Same world but maybe those trees now look 2d like they're photos (true story). Or maybe a flat image is now moving, or maybe you're looking into your black coffee and on the surface you can see the lights reflecting moving like a digital pattern, forming a picture you can see clearly as if you could see a painting when you're not on acid. You know the pattern pulsing through the top of your coffee isn't real, but you can see it perfectly. You don't "think you can see it, or imagine it", it's real but only relative to you.

This has really opened my eyes up to just how we exist. The space between us is a lie, we're all connected in a self sustaining eco system; our consciousness is a byproduct that makes us think we exist, it makes us forget we're all just little programs programmed to eat and die and sustain other animals and the earth so we can eat them and they can eat us. We're all small cogs in a big cosmic framework. We are the universe and our consciousness is the universe looking at itself and wrongly imagining it's something seperate.

Acid changed my life and made me alot happier/friendly. It made me realize people are important and social connections matter, my friends have commented I seem alot more happier now and alot more jokey. While knowing it's just neurochemistry and not believing in god or superstition, I'd rate psychedelic drugs as spiritual experiences for me. Yesterday was my first bad trip.