Smarts

How to become smarter and more effective.

by Tad Waddington, Ph.D.

Smarts: Four things worth learning about learning

Read. Recall. Write. Experiments show that the way most of us try to learn new material is inefficient. We read and reread a passage until we think we understand it. Then we are done. In fact, we learn much more effectively if we read, try to recall what we just read, and then write it down or say it in our own words.

What to do when you can't understand the whole until you understand the parts and you can't understand the parts until you understand the whole. Read More

Smarts: It's not how much you learn that matters. It's how much you remember.

Six steps to making memories stick. Read More

You tell me

We are what we think. With what do you want to fill your mind? Read More

That's all well and good in practice, but how does it work in theory?

Two-finger typing, an on-coming train, men's nipples, and what it all tells you about scientific theory. Read More

Defined: Expertise. It's not how smart you are, but how much you know that matters

When scientists began to study expertise, they first assumed that experts must be smarter or more talented than novices, but they quickly learned that the key difference between experts and novices is not mental power, but knowledge. Read More

On the value of mythologizing yourself

What Odysseus and Frodo Baggins can teach us about moxie, civilization, being chased by a fury, and the sacralization of the ordinary. Read More

On the Science of Goal-Orientation

If you apply to med school to become a doctor, then is the future (your becoming a doctor) causing something in its past (your applying to med school)? Read More

Defined: PhD, and what the pursuit of reveals about goal-pursuit

Tricycle, Bicycle, Car, Race Car. What's Next? Read More

On Mastery

Quite correctly, many people will argue that progress involves moving from religion through art and on to science, but here is an example where progress is made by moving from science through art and on to religion. Read More

How David Beats Goliath in Problem-solving

Here's the problem: Your circle of competence is small, but the demands of the world are great. How do you make your circle of competence speak to the problem? Read More

Defined: Information. It's not the thing you think it is.

What can Annie Oakley, my waistline, and Columbus tell us about Information, Plato, and how there being no there, there may not be such a bad thing after all? Read More

On the Hermeneutics of Evidence

It is increasingly possible to create new knowledge without conducting new research. Indeed, it is increasingly important that we do so, because we currently do not pull nearly enough meaning out of the primary research we do conduct. Read More

The Avatar's Advantage

The avatar's advantage is the process that allows us to create something out of nothing, that gave the West a boost through the ages, that explains the relationship between passion and action, and that shows you how to pick yourself up by your bootstraps. Read More

Tad Waddington, Ph.D. is the author of Lasting Contribution: How to Think, Plan, and Act to Accomplish Meaningful Work, a book that has won five prestigious awards.

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