How To Become Smarter

While we are all equally capable, some of us make the mistake of going with the flow.

This is where we get stuck, our intelligence is overwhelmed, and our minds slowly slow down.

The reasons for the slow down are as simple as scary, loneliness, fears, sadness, and unfortunately stress.

Slowly all of this conspires to rob the world of color, and make us tired, weak, and prematurely old.

This is the state, that people think is lack of intelligence.

Politicians call it joe six pack, worthless teachers call it a factory worker.

Over a very long stretch of time, humans became predisposed to listen to elders.

Without a question or worry, when we are young we sit and listen.

Hello teacher, tell me what is my lesson.

Blindly accepting, what we are told, marks the beginning.

This, is where we enter the stream.

That eventually makes us so weak, that we feel we just aren’t that smart.

To be fair, long ago, those who didn’t listen to the elders, were eaten by the hippo, or stung by the insects, or bitten by snakes.

But that was long ago, and things have changed.

Nietzche asks: “What if a demon were to creep after you one night, in your loneliest loneliness, and say, 'This life which you live must be lived by you once again and innumerable times more; and every pain and joy and thought and sigh must come again to you, all in the same sequence. The eternal hourglass will again and again be turned and you with it, dust of the dust!' Would you throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse that demon? Or would you answer, 'Never have I heard anything more divine'?”

Bukowski adds: “How in the hell could a man enjoy being awakened at 8:30 a.m. by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress, force-feed, shit, piss, brush teeth and hair, and fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so?”

Kurt Vonnegut really nailed it, when concluding one of his works with a wish, that went “Make me young again.” what a powerful and reveling sentence.

The stream takes you down river, taking everything away, health, joy, and even love of life.

Stress poisons us with obesity, depression, and it only gets worse from here.

I think feeling unintelligent, is not only natural, but also the least of it.

What it actually is, is a gentle alarm.

You are a warrior, you can get through anything.

But that does not mean, you should tolerate shitty coworkers, overwork, and stress.

It means, you went too far, it means you used the power of a warrior on trash.

It means, no more work tomorrow, you just quit.

Hit the pause button, and unplug your alarm clock – that torture was also worthless.

The first three days, are very important, because the toxicity that has built up in you.

Is wrapped around your brain, you will question your decision not to go to work, out of insanity.

The insanity that has been creeping up upon you, that would eventually turn you into a lonely creep.

Don’;t just resist it, study it.

Study, how hard you want to serve, for shitty paycheck.

For an easy Monday, and an easy check, an easy end.

You have to go to the store, might as well get a journal, write down how you feel, but for no more than half a page.

The journal is for joy, leave pain out of it.

In a couple of months, whatever you write, will make you very sad.

But only because you will be happy then, you will be healing, it will take a few months.

What are you going to do for money, two wise and noble things.

First, as you begin working out, to repair your body and remove the premature aging.

You will learn from your experience how to be a trainer, and a trail guide.

You will be getting paid, for guiding people, across the Appalachian Trail.

It is hard work, but you’ll love it.

And second is learning computer programming, it is for all, it is for you, begin with p5.js tutorials.

Listen to them, and many other JavaScript tutorials on the trail.

The world of health is a world of simplicity, it is a world of greatness.

Which brings us to repairing your education, your teachers were just trying to get paid.

They were not educating you, they were training you, manufacturing you.

Your first day away from your job, begins a trip to get Narrated Books or Audio Books.

Begin with Giants of Philosophy, read by Charlton Heston.

And prepare for the Story Of Philosophy, by Will Durant.

But that is the next step, first you need adventure books, all of them.

Begin with Bill Bryson, and move onto John Krakauer.

Bryson should lead you to Science Popularizer, an introduction to clear thinking like no other.

All of these books will fit your trail lifestyle, your new style.

So as long as you quit work, and walk the Appalachian Trail to repair your body you will do great.

But exiting the mistakes that you were coerced into, is just the first part of the journey.

You will need to begin building a legacy, to put an end to mistakes that got you, personally.

You are being asked to stop following, and grow all the way up until you become a great being.

You were never unintelligent, or less smart, and your poverty was there on purpose to make you work.

I will close with Henry, who put it so Gently: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms...”