Cat, cat where are you cat?

How are we defining “making you smarter” though? Are we talking about crystallized intelligence or fluid intelligence? Studying builds your crystallized intelligence for sure, and studying efficiently - making new connections, learning to use your brain in new ways - builds your fluid intelligence. In general, I view “smarter” to be synonymous with “having greater fluid intelligence” aka “having a greater capacity to make connections and use information in new ways.”

There’s actually a TED talk on this distinction in the context of Alzheimer’s that discusses the results of one study: despite grey matter loss patterns consistent with Alzheimer’s, a group of women who had been actively learning new skills and languages showed no symptoms of the disease (09:50). Basically, they had built such a vast network of synapses that there was enough redundancy in the system to make up for the loss of grey matter. 

This, to me, is what something that “makes you smarter” should do. Learning a new language makes you smarter. Learning to play a new instrument makes you smarter. And studying, if you do it right, can absolutely make you smarter as long as you’re actually learning something and making those new connections in your brain. What doesn’t make you smarter is revising the same notes and material over and over without introducing new connections and new ways of thinking. A lot of people call this studying. I call it memorizing your notes to do well on a test. 

Here’s another distinction. Learning makes you smarter; studying (information) makes you more knowledgeable. Again, if you’re studying efficiently you should also be learning and thus building both fluid and crystallized intelligence. 

So yeah in general I’m super wary of “study groups” and “study sessions” because even here at Stanford those usually don’t include anything that actually helps people learn rather than memorize the material. I don’t like the way a lot of people study, and I tend not to call what I do “studying” because I want to promote the importance of learning in this environment where honestly it seems like a lot of people just want to pass the tests. On studyblr it’s getting better; I’m loving the influx of “how to study efficiently” posts that actually address the importance of making connections, overlearning, and thinking about concepts in new ways, & hopefully everyone who takes those to heart ends up here & demolishes our trash academic culture lmao

songs that sounds like they’re from the 80s but aren’t

you make a cute new friend but you’re not sure if she’s gay and you don’t want to ruin this new friendship so you’re going to try to have fun hanging out with her while not developing any feelings

waiting rooms are liminal spaces

chill vampire tunes for ppl who just got bitten recently

soundtrack for a horror movie where the lesbian couple survive and kill the axe murderer/exorcise the demons/bust some ghosts,etc.

those kids riding on their bikes in indie movies

this one literally makes no sense if you haven’t read the basic eight i guess but i’ll put it here anyway because imo it’s good if you haven’t read it just picture a teenage girl at a party that goes very very wrong

Web Comic

RAVEN by @fatmasahem

Buy prints here http://fatmasahem.bigcartel.com/product/raven