Ron Hale-Evans is a writer, game designer, and the creator of the Mentat Wiki, a collaborative environment for exploring ways to become a better thinker. He has done technical writing for the Free Software Foundation, the Linux Foundation, and Microsoft.

Marty Hale-Evans is a technical editor who has worked for Microsoft, Boeing, and the University of Chicago Press. An award-winning game designer, she currently chairs a local literary science fiction convention and pursues various creative endeavors.

Introduction xvii

Chapter 1 Memory 1

Hack 1: Remember to Remember 1

Hack 2: Build a Memory Dungeon 6

Hack 3: Mix Up Your Facts 10

Hack 4: Space Your Repetitions 14

Hack 5: Recall Long-Ago Events 18

Chapter 2 Learning 25

Hack 6: Establish Your Canon 25

Hack 7: Write in Your Books 32

Hack 8: Read at Speed 44

Hack 9: Learn by Teaching 49

Hack 10: Play the Learning Game 52

Hack 11: Pretend You're a Grad Student 55

Hack 12: Study Kid Stuff 59

Chapter 3 Information Processing 63

Hack 13: Polyspecialize 63

Hack 14: Integrate Your Interests 67

Hack 15: Sift Your Ideas 72

Hack 16: Ask the Hive Mind 77

Hack 17: Write Magnifi cent Notes 83

Chapter 4 Time Management 95

Hack 18: Keep a Mental Datebook 95

Hack 19: Tell Time Who's Boss 99

Hack 20: Meet MET 106

Hack 21: Get Control of Yourself 111

Hack 22: Locate Lost Items 121

Hack 23: Huffman-Code Your Life 126

Hack 24: Knock Off Work 129

Chapter 5 Creativity and Productivity 135

Hack 25: Manifest Yourself 135

Hack 26: Woo the Muse of the Odd 138

Hack 27: Seek Bad Examples 143

Hack 28: Turn a Job into a Game 148

Hack 29: Scrumble for Glory 160

Hack 30: Salvage a Vintage Hack 167

Hack 31: Mine the Future 174

Hack 32: Dare to Do No Permanent Damage 179

Hack 33: Make Happy Mistakes 182

Hack 34: Don't Know What You're Doing 187

Hack 35: Ratchet 195

Chapter 6 Math and Logic 199

Hack 36: Roll the Mental Dice 200

Hack 37: Abduct Your Conclusions 204

Hack 38: Think Clearly about Simple Errors 209

Hack 39: Notate Personally 215

Hack 40: Notate Wisely 218

Hack 41: Engineer Your Results 223

Hack 42: Enter the Third Dimension 233

Hack 43: Enter the Fourth Dimension 239

Chapter 7 Communication 263

Hack 44: Spell It Out 264

Hack 45: Read Lips 271

Hack 46: Emote Precisely 275

Hack 47: Streamline Your Shorthand 283

Hack 48: Communicate Multimodally 287

Hack 49: Mediate Your Environment 291

Chapter 8 Mental Fitness 299

Hack 50: Acquire a Taste 300

Hack 51: Try Something New Daily 305

Hack 52: Metabehave Yourself 308

Hack 53: Train Your Fluid Intelligence 315

Hack 54: Think, Try, Learn 321

Hack 55: Take the One-Question IQ Test 331

Chapter 9 Clarity 335

Hack 56: Cultivate Beginner's Mind 336

Hack 57: Take a Semantic Pause 340

Hack 58: Retreat and Reboot 350

Hack 59: Get Used to Losing 355

Hack 60: Trust Your Intelligence (and Everyone Else's) 359

Appendix A The Unboxed Games Manifesto 367

Appendix B 3D Visualization 369

Index 373