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Every day, in every way, I am getting more... not... smart.

16:26 / 18.02.03

I swear I can actually feel my brain atrophying. I was hardly Captain Nimblelobe before, but what little understanding I had of the world is fading away. All my opinions seem indefensible, all my convictions paper-thin.
So, what should I do? The quicker and less complicated the fix the better.

16:30 / 18.02.03

Do everything quicker and less better.

16:50 / 18.02.03

Sleep more.

Really.

Tryphena Absent

17:25 / 18.02.03

Aah, you need to go out and dance and wear some pretty clothes and don't tell my you don't like dancing, it makes the world go round.

Whisky Priestess

18:21 / 18.02.03

Go out into the world and encounter stupid people. It won't be hard - they're everywhere. Talk to them. Listen to their inane opinions. Buy them drinks. Listen to their tedious chittering. Set them that vocab test. Feel better.

Alternatively, watch the next series of Big Brother.

20:20 / 18.02.03

Read a book.

20:22 / 18.02.03

Move to a different world, where everything's easier. I would suggest Mario World, but there's that complex political situation with the Toads trying to form an independent state.

Only think about a certain subset of stuff and convince yourself that's all that matters.

20:32 / 18.02.03

Oh, yeah, aren't there Mozart concertos that will make you smarter while you listen to them? It's like getting one of those boosts in Mario World, only it's for your brain, not for knocking turtles and shit out of the way.

22:00 / 18.02.03

The quicker and less complicated the fix the better eh?
Hm - just don't worry about it!
Intellectual atrophy is normal - isn't it?

23:09 / 18.02.03

Of course, the most convincing example of my stupidity is me posting this thread in the first place. Really sad. Good answers to a moronic question, though.

23:49 / 18.02.03

Ur, whuh? I didn't think it was dumb, and I wasn't making fun of you.

Teasing a little, maybe.

Austrian Puppet Master

08:41 / 19.02.03

Go to Austria, to the Culture Capital 2003 Graz and smell culture...hmbrf....just k.
no, just accept your dumbness (does this word exist). it's a part of human nature...

09:25 / 19.02.03

Perhaps you have it all wrong, and you're actually becoming smarter, and realising that all your convictions and views aren't as straightforward as you thought when you were younger.

Wisdom letting you see how little you know, kind of thing.

Or maybe you just need a good sleep.

09:35 / 19.02.03

stand on your head to get the blood flow back in there or alternatively read some complicated philosophy, on a daily basis, that always works for me.

10:07 / 19.02.03

A sense of humour helps you punch above your intellectual weight, and I think you have no worries on that score.

13:54 / 19.02.03

Regarding the topic abstract: I don't reckon that vocab test counts for nothing, brainwise. I couldn't be bothered to do the whole thing, but I predict I'd probably have got about 90 or thereabouts, which doesn't really bother me.

For the record, I been aware of myself getting less and less smart for a while .. when I was in school I used to just plough through heavy, complicated books in days and always have coherent things to say about them at the end.. I'd recognise occult symbolism a mile off and have big long thinks about different paradigms and hidden messges within blah, blah, blah.. doesn't happen anymore - I can barely string a sentence together.

I blame the insidious influence of rock n' roll and TV.

I reckon my advice would be to spend a day in the library, forcing yourself to investigate the works of some particualrly high-minded and "important" literary figure. That tends to get me back into the swing of things anyway, and, being a student, I can write it off as "work" as well.
Being clever about pop culture is completely great, obviously, but your brain tends to drown in it after a while, so a few days of sensory deprivation and enforced high culture can help you get back to full mental health to return to the important stuff, like kids TV, internet personality tests and bad pop-punk records..

14:01 / 19.02.03

Biz, I hear you. I am trying to write something at the moment and my brain power seems to me to be that of a maggotty piece of Stilton.

(and I got 158, so yah boo sucks to the vocab test)

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

14:25 / 19.02.03

Where is this test?! I always feel like I'm getting dumber, and frankly, I've decided I don't care. The stupider I get the happier I can be doing menial work for the rest of my life.

Anyway, where's this test ? I'm in a bad mood and a test is just what I need.

14:31 / 19.02.03

Here's the thread about the test.

And be assured that if you're in a bad mood, it's totally not what you need..

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

14:34 / 19.02.03

Oh, I know, I know.

Goodness Gracious Meme

14:35 / 19.02.03

Eat more fish.

14:47 / 19.02.03

Gingko biloba?

For the record, Biz, I only scored 152 on the test...

14:49 / 19.02.03

Go to a council estate and laugh at some pikeys in their fake Lacoste tracksuits. Point out that the crocodile is facing the wrong way. Ask if they've ever played baseball, and if not, why they wear baseball caps.

Run like fuck.

That should help.

14:50 / 19.02.03

I've been doing maths recently for pretty much the first time since school. Maybe I'm imagining it but it seems to have improve memory and "sharpness". Perhaps try doing A-level maths? Or maybe it is just any activity which exercises parts of the brain that have become lazy.

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

14:52 / 19.02.03

114!

That's suitably annoyed me then.

15:01 / 19.02.03

I'd like to say that Bizunth and Bizunth's parent corporation, Time Warner, recognise that stupidity can be found in all walks of life, all classes, ages, races, creeds and sexes, and do not intend this thread to be a slur on anyone by implying that at any point I was actually intelligent, and that intellect has anything to do with vocabulary, or being a self-loathing leftist white middle class male from Surrey.

Goodness Gracious Meme

15:01 / 19.02.03

Chill out, people.

A test like that one tests a very specific set of knowledge and one's recollection of it. This has bugger all to do with intelligence, or what I'll call quality of thought.

And as Ariadne's pointed out, there are types of thought that we develop throught maturity, often involving unlearning of our earlier simplified modes of understadning. And this means that we might, for example, become worse at recalling specific definitions, but more able to weigh up a situation and understand incoherences/complexitities.

Which one would you rather be able to do?

Hvaen't done the vocab thing, didn't have the patience, but am pretty sure I wouldn't score very highly. And the last time I took an IQ I scored something like 95. Which isn't exactly burning up the braincells. But I know my intelligence works on more levels than that. and you should too.

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

15:10 / 19.02.03

Oh, I only did it to annoy myself further (that's the great thing about being in a bad mood for me, I only seek to make it worse for myself).

It's my birthday today and I think I'm turning in to Marvin.
You know, the android fella.

15:28 / 19.02.03

I love the way you English people say, "doing maths." It's cute.

15:38 / 19.02.03

When I was growing up, my sagacious Dad once told me that, when you die and they write your eulogy, "He was a clever bugger" is worthless but "He was a good man" is evidence of a life well spent. Only he said it in broad Scots, with more swearwords. But he was right. Intellectual abilities are of no account unless applied to some worthwhile purpose.

Of course, I never agreed with anything he said to me as a boy and my ambition was to have "He was a great shag" carved out on my gravestone, one letter at a time by a long line of distraught (robustly made and male) volunteers.

15:54 / 19.02.03

That is indeed a worthy ambition, Xoc...

And 'appy burfdy Suedehead