Intelligence is often used as a tool to generate more sophisticated arguments for what one already believes. A higher IQ correlates with the ability to find reasons supporting your stance, not with an enhanced ability to genuinely consider opposing viewpoints.

Contrary to fears of 'digital dementia,' some research indicates that people over 50 who regularly use digital devices experience lower rates of cognitive decline. While the causal link is still being studied, it challenges the narrative that screen time is inherently harmful for older minds.

The health benefits of walking are not linear. While nearly 10,000 steps per day offers maximum dementia risk reduction, you can achieve half of that benefit with just 3,800 steps. This makes significant cognitive health improvements accessible even for highly sedentary individuals.

No language is inherently "faster." Languages that pack more meaning into single words (polysynthetic) are spoken more slowly, while those with simpler words (like English) are spoken more quickly. This trade-off creates a universal, constant rate of information transfer across all human languages.

To optimize learning, perform cognitive tasks simultaneously with light physical exercise. Activities like listening to a language app while walking increase blood flow to the hippocampus, the brain's memory center. This enhances the ability to form and consolidate new memories in real-time, rather than exercising before or after studying.

Across three billion years and four stages of mind (molecule, neuron, network, community), intelligence has consistently advanced by diversifying its thinking elements. The most powerful minds at each stage are those with the greatest variety of components. This frames diversity as a fundamental, time-tested strategy for improving competence in any system, including organizations.

The idea of a single 'general intelligence' or IQ is misleading because key cognitive abilities exist in a trade-off. For instance, the capacity for broad exploration (finding new solutions) is in tension with the capacity for exploitation (efficiently executing known tasks), which schools and IQ tests primarily measure.

Thought is fundamentally non-linguistic. Evidence from babies, animals, and how we handle homophones shows that we conceptualize the world first, then translate those concepts into language for communication. Language evolved to express thought, not to be the medium of thought itself.

Research shows that when adults (parents, managers) use collaborative problem-solving, they don't just help the other person. The act of practicing empathy, perspective-taking, and flexible thinking strengthens these very same neurocognitive skills in themselves.