Hack Your Brain

We're curious minds, hackers and tinkerers.
We love to tweak our tools.
But our most important and wonderful tool is our own brain.
How can we understand what's going on so we can hack it?

This is the full-text slide deck for "Hack Your Brain".
You can find all the trivia in "Hack Your Brain - Trivia" and a french (lighter) version in "Hack Your Brain - FR".

Transcript

1. @abelar_s - maitre-du-monde.fr
   hAcK yOuR brAin
   These are full-text slides for
   « Hack Your Brain »
   The talk’s slides are lighter
   because too much text annoys
   and distracts the audience.
   You will find more details here.
   @HumanTalks 12/02/2013
   Trivia: https://speakerdeck.com/abelar_s/hack-your-brain-trivia
   mercredi 13 février 2013
   

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2. ‣ EPITA, Faveod, ParisRB
   ‣ Ruby depuis 2006
   ‣ Rails depuis 2007
   GMathieu
   Who am I ?
   mercredi 13 février 2013
   

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3. Who am I ?
   ‣ EPITA, Faveod, ParisRB
   ‣ Ruby since 2006
   ‣ Rails since 2007
   And I have some heroes. For Science.
   ‣ they’re in no particular order
   ‣ they may have much, much more trivia
   ‣ some of these fun facts might be myths
   mercredi 13 février 2013
   

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4. iNtelliGence
   Leonardo da Vinci
   mercredi 13 février 2013
   

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5. What is it?
   Sorry, I can’t and
   won’t define it
   ‣ is it some quantity?
   ‣ you’re smart
   ‣ he’s talented
   ‣ she has a gift
   ‣ or a kind of muscle?
   ‣ you worked hard
   ‣ he spent hours on this!
   ‣ she’s put a lot of effort
   Albert Einstein
   mercredi 13 février 2013
   

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6. The problem is Kurt Gödel
   when you’re at a limit
   ‣ you’re not smart
   ‣ you’re ashamed
   ‣ you will never succeed
   ‣ your ego will not want to try
   hard things you might fail
   ‣ work on it!
   ‣ I failed? I didn’t work enough
   ‣ Get out of comfort zone
   ‣ Seek challenges, get better!
   mercredi 13 février 2013
   

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7. Genius! Évariste Galois
   geniuses don’t exist
   ‣ that’s about respect
   ‣ he’s smart? he earned it
   ‣ don’t dismiss his hard work
   ‣ and self-respect
   ‣ you can be a genius too!
   ‣ it’s never too late
   mercredi 13 février 2013
   

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8. QED Karl-Friedrich Gauss
   the sky’s the limit
   ‣ self-fulfilling prophecy
   ‣ the first step is believing
   ‣ think you can’t? you won’t!
   ‣ put the extra effort
   ‣ go from good to great
   ‣ rate yourself on 10‘000 not 10
   ‣ form habits
   ‣ make 110% become your 100%
   ‣ don’t let 80% become 100%
   mercredi 13 février 2013
   

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9. Read more...
   ‣ The secret to raising smart kids
   Carol S. Dweck: http://www.scientificamerican.com/
   article.cfm?id=the-secret-to-raising-smart-kids
   ‣ Sebastian Marshall
   http://sebastianmarshall.com/the-1-to-10-scale-vs-the-1-
   to-10000-scale
   ‣ Derek Sivers https://sivers.org/kimo
   « There’s no speed limit »
   ‣ Daniel Tammet
   « Embracing the wide sky »
   Daniel Tammet
   mercredi 13 février 2013
   

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10. eXpertiSe
    http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2722
    SMBC, by @ZachWeiner
    mercredi 13 février 2013
    

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11. Mastery Grigori Perelman
    Guess what? I can’t and
    won’t define it
    ‣ Beginner
    ‣ knows some rules
    ‣ Skilled
    ‣ knows and applies the rules
    ‣ Expert
    ‣ understands the rules
    ‣ combine them into new stuff
    ‣ Master
    ‣ innovates, teaches
    ‣ breaks the rules, innovates
    ‣ « feels », has a trained instinct
    mercredi 13 février 2013
    

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12. 10‘000 hours
    ‣ will 10‘000h make me an expert?
    ‣ deliberate practice
    ‣ explorations
    ‣ serendipity
    ‣ questions
    Bobby Fischer
    mercredi 13 février 2013
    

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13. Read more...
    ‣ Terrence Tao : http://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-
    advice/there’s-more-to-mathematics-than-rigour-and-proofs/
    ‣ SMBC ! http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2722
    ‣ Google « 10‘000 hours »
    Srinivasa Ramanujan
    mercredi 13 février 2013
    

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14. MemORy
    Archimedes
    mercredi 13 février 2013
    

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15. Memory Benjamin Franklin
    I won’t define it either ;)
    but there’s lots of research and it’s
    getting better understood
    ‣ It’s actually a graph
    ‣ we’re storing
    many, many bits of knowledge
    ‣ we’re retrieving
    better if they’re woven together
    ‣ similarities / differences
    to what we already know
    ‣ works better if it’s personal
    mercredi 13 février 2013
    

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16. Forgetting
    ‣ Reinforcement ‣ Spacing
    mercredi 13 février 2013
    

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17. Experiences
    ‣ themes and categories
    ‣ relate new things to known stuff
    ‣ add emotions
    ‣ how does this make you feel?
    ‣ add examples
    ‣ remember abstract stuff
    by their concrete examples
    ‣ Look at ankisrs.net
    ‣ also used in duolingo et al.
    « Rasta » Liebniz
    mercredi 13 février 2013
    

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18. tOOlbOX
    mercredi 13 février 2013
    

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19. Be stupid!
    http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/tag/studying/
    ‣Feynman Technique
    ‣ ask « stupid » questions
    ‣ don’t get lost at the start!
    ‣ use simpler words
    ‣ add analogies / metaphors
    ‣ you might find errors
    in the common wisdom
    ‣ Subtle variations
    isn’t this ringing a bell?
    ‣ Lean Startup
    ‣ Fail fast
    Richard Feynman
    mercredi 13 février 2013
    

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20. Hirschfield’s rules
    ‣ http://blog.creativethink.com/2006/11/tom_hirshfields.html
    1. set targets: not too small, nor too big
    2. don’t look at details first
    3. rephrase
    4. try another direction
    5. explain to other people
    6. transforming a problem
    into another problem
    7. if it’s surprising, it’s useful
    8. study the inverse problem
    9. analyze your own methods
    10. ask « why this? »
    Marie Curie
    mercredi 13 février 2013
    

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21. QED Grace Hopper
    Have you noticed?
    these are actually tips to:
    ‣ time management
    ‣ like setting priorities
    ‣ hacking motivation
    ‣ getting results is a key
    ‣ better health
    ‣ hacking yourself is
    caring about yourself
    mercredi 13 février 2013
    

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22. Questions ?
    Thanks!
    maitre-du-monde.fr
    @abelar_s:
    - twitter
    - slideshare
    -speakerdeck
    mercredi 13 février 2013
    

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23. Credits
    Entrepreneur Infographic: Kanjis
    http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/annavital/becoming-an-
    entrepreneur-infographic-book
    Zach Weiner: Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal,
    « 11 lives » comic: http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2722
    Gotlib: La Rubrique à Brac : Isaac Newtons
    GMathieu: Normalien / Centralien / Alien
    Unknown: Archimedes & Rasta Liebniz
    ...
    Alan Turing
    mercredi 13 février 2013
    

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