How to become a more erudite person. Memo to students or what it means to be an educated person

Children learn a foreign language playfully, in parallel with the general development. Scientists attribute this to the peculiarities of memory and the psyche.

For an adult, learning a foreign language is always a challenge. And always a huge benefit. This is an excellent training for the brain and the prevention of memory deterioration in old age. And you can also communicate with people from different countries and expand your horizons.

Method 2. Read more

When our parents needed new information, they opened the book. Generations Y and Z draw new knowledge on the Internet. Reading volume may not have been reduced, but quality often suffers. After all, books are read thoughtfully and consistently, and articles usually just scroll with their eyes.

Subordinate reading to the plan: make a list of books, distribute them according to areas of knowledge and genres. Services like or Livelib will help to compile such a list. Then methodically read the books one by one. Just do it right - use .

Method 3. Turn to art

Art is not only contemplation. With it, you can develop perception and thinking.

Choose for yourself some area of ​​cultural activity of mankind and try to understand it. For example, fine arts. Visit exhibitions, watch documentaries, read artist biographies. Gradually, you will begin to understand painting, and at the same time you will learn a lot and take a fresh look at social processes.

Method 4. Watch video lectures

Method 5. Watch smart TV shows

For users of the World Wide Web, TV is often associated with evil. Today it’s even fashionable to brag: “We don’t have a TV at home!”.

Indeed, the quality of content on many channels leaves much to be desired, but there are alternatives. For example, Discovery. This TV channel produces very high-quality popular science programs that cannot be legally downloaded on the Web.

Watch scientific programs in the studied foreign language - this is a double brain training.

Method 6. Play video games

Contrary to popular beliefs about harm, computer games develop reaction, fantasy and logical thinking. Scientific studies have shown that children who play video games score higher than their peers.

Playing difficult quests is like solving puzzles. The player has to make difficult decisions in a short time, choosing the lines of the plot development. And it is a powerful brain exercise.

Method 7. Solve puzzles

If you still don't like video games, buy a good old Rubik's cube, tangram or puzzle. Alternatively, download the .

Puzzles "rejuvenate" the brain, develop memory, thinking and perseverance. And they are also excellent time-killers: if you get carried away, you can spend more than one hour solving the puzzle. What else do you need on a train or plane?

Method 8. Make new acquaintances

Networking not only helps build a career, but also develops memory for names and faces.

In addition, a new person is always a source of new knowledge. Communication with a smart interlocutor, even virtual, enriches you spiritually and intellectually.

Method 9. Get enough sleep

The vast majority of studies have proven that a healthy adult needs 8 hours of sleep. And in the dark, comfort and without extraneous noise. These factors affect the quality of sleep.

The connection between good sleep and similar mental activity has also been proven. Read to dispel the last doubts.

Sleep deprivation is detrimental to the brain.

Due to the inhibition of neural processes in the parietal lobe, problems arise with the speed of reaction, and when the work of the prefrontal cortex slows down, problems with vision and the formulation of thoughts begin.

Method 10. Switch to a healthy diet

Avocado, salmon, blueberries, oatmeal - there are many that prevent memory deterioration.

Enrich your diet with fruits, vegetables, greens, cereals and seafood, give up cholesterol sweets, and you will feel that your brain is reaching new capacities.

Intellectual front workers are advised to drink more fluids throughout the day. And it is better to alternate coffee with green tea and mineral water.

The author of this wonderful (so relevant in our "clip" time) materialIosif Sergeevich Zavalishin (1912–1982) - hydraulic engineer, chief specialist of the Hydroproject Institute named after. V.Ya.Zhuka, who took part, perhaps, in all the largest post-war construction projects - mega-projects of hydroelectric power stations. Veteran of the Great Patriotic War, with a combat path Moscow - Stalingrad - Kharkov - Kyiv - Bucharest - Budapest - Prague - Berlin.

Iosif Sergeevich, a descendant of the People's Will Fyodor Ivanovich Zavalishin, is the clearest example of a genuine Soviet Russian intellectual, a highly educated professional practitioner, but also an idealist, educator, a surprisingly humanitarian whole person, with a deeply indifferent civic attitude towards the Fatherland. Sublime and in public, and in production and family life.

Speaking of Iosif Sergeevich, it is impossible not to mention his faithful companion, like-minded person and colleague - Eleanor Samsonovna Kuznetsova, associate professor of the department of pedagogy at Moscow State Pedagogical Institute named after V.I. Lenin,lecturer of the society "Knowledge", the author of many scientific works on the theory of education,inspirer and organizer of the All-Union movement of student pedagogical teams, witha trusted follower and propagandist of pedagogical ideas A.S. Makarenko, head of the Makarenkovskaya section of the Pedagogical Society of the RSFSR. On her initiative, the museum of A.S. Makarenko was created.

In the apartment of the Zavalishins, under the leadership of Eleonora Samsonovna Kuznetsova, a unique pedagogical seminar (the famous "Makarenkov Wednesdays") functioned, in which Iosif Sergeevich was a constant participant and generator of ideas. Over the decades (!) of weekly work, the seminar has become a true center of living pedagogical research, the most important phenomenondomesticculture.

Such is the circle of life, the soul of the high impulses of the family of Iosif Sergeevich Zavalishin, outlining his spiritual image and aspirations. According to the will of Joseph Sergeevich, relatives and associates published his works:

I.S. Zavalishin. Life. Ideas. Projects. Volume 1. Reflections on humanitarian topics. pp. 48–73. Edition 2 supplemented in 2 volumes. Volume 2. Cities of the future. Lectures. From close quarters. Compilation, editing, comments Belyakov E.A., Zavyalova N.I., M., 2017.

We present the current work from this collection, and also, with the kind permission of the authors-compilers, we post the entire book for download and reading.

Photo: military photo of I.S. Zavalishin.

ADULTS EDUCATION

There used to be an opinion, and it is still alive today, that it is enough to build tens of thousands of schools, thousands of universities, and the task of educating the people will be solved. It turns out that this is not true at all. The question is much more multifaceted.

In class conditions, when only the upper strata received education, the so-called "society" was very small. The role of cultural centers was performed by estates, and at the beginning of the 19th century. the entire educated society was housed in the Assembly of the Nobility (the Hall of Columns in Moscow).

Personal contacts, exchange of opinions were provided, intellectual connections were established. Something similar happened in the then Petersburg. At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. the role of cultural centers was played by the estates of patrons, artists (Abramtsevo, Polenovo, Talashkino, Voloshin's dacha in Koktebel). What kind of hall is needed for modern Soviet society?! After all, if it is technically possible to create a hall for, say, a million people, then will such a gigantic hall succeed in psychologically accessible and necessary communication for a person?

How to be? Let's think. After all, it is society that ultimately educates and educates. Great people, and not only the great, but also the most ordinary, receive their final education (and it is immeasurably more than what they receive in schools and universities) precisely in society. Pushkin received his true education not only in the Lyceum, but in society, in society. We sometimes take too literally and unambiguously such, for example, Lermontov's lines: “Why did he enter this world, envious and stifling…” In a certain sense, A.S. Pushkin really suffered, and in the most fatal way, from the "light", but we must not forget that the light is not only Dantes, but also Pushkin's friends, and without this communication, without society, Pushkin was not would be Pushkin. Goethe has great words: “After all, in essence, we are all collective beings, whatever we imagine about ourselves ... We must borrow and learn both from those who lived before us, and from those who live with us. Even the greatest genius would not go far if he wanted to produce everything from himself. But so many kind people do not understand this, and for half their lives they wander as if in darkness, dreaming of originality..

Ideas are always born in society, live in it and develop, and are not at all born together with people, as was naively thought before, as Maeterlinck thought in his beautiful fairy tale about the Blue Bird. Glinka rightly said: “Music is written by the people, and we, composers, only arrange it”.

Once a friend came to Blok and asked: “Well, what did you write today?”, to which Block replied: “I never composed, I don’t compose and I won’t compose”. Where did Blok get his wonderful thoughts? - In society. Consequently, along with education carried out with the help of schools and higher educational institutions, a number of additional measures are needed. How to recreate the effect of education by society, if there are so many people who have received education and society has become so cumbersome? This is what we will talk about in the topic covering problem number 3 - adult education. Looking ahead, let's say - this problem is quite solvable. We just need to skillfully use the power of modern technology and the advantages of our Soviet society. The West is not up to the task. This problem has a small subtopic: about the methodology of self-education and self-education.

ABOUT THE METHOD OF SELF-EDUCATION (HOW TO BECOME AN EDUCATED PERSON)

We often hear that some people have outstanding abilities, a phenomenal memory, the ability to quickly grasp and, because of this, they know a lot in various fields of science, culture, and life. Of course, abilities are of great importance, but they are far from the only thing. You can be very capable and talented, you can study at school, college, university, graduate school, but remain a poorly educated person. It is possible, relying on a good memory, to memorize and memorize a lot, but still not come under the name of a cultured, erudite, highly educated person. "Multiple knowledge does not add intelligence". (Heraclitus)

What's the matter? Aren't these statements paradoxical? We will try to answer the questions arising from the title of the article.

I. MANDATORY RESOLUTION OF EMERGING COMPLEX AND DIFFICULT ISSUES

Life is diverse, people are diverse, circumstances are diverse. No two people are exactly the same, no two circumstances are the same. Every person, whoever he is, is fraught with something individual, unique. When developing some principles for yourself, you should most of all be afraid of template solutions and ready-made recipes, because the template does not take into account either the individual characteristics of a person or the characteristics of the situation. Living with stereotyped ideas, a person will sooner or later encounter sharp contradictions with reality, which will prevent him from correctly understanding the surrounding circumstances and will inevitably create a false idea of ​​the world. With false ideas it is impossible to become an educated person. "Rust eats iron, lies eat the soul". (M. Gorky)

A person always or, in any case, very often faces complex and intractable questions, and this can be treated differently. You can treat it like Dostoevsky's Raskolnikov and with great difficulty find the meaning and understand the essence of the mistake made. You can do what Balzac did: when his hero got into a difficult financial situation, then, according to biographers, Balzac locked himself in a room, did not go anywhere for three days and hardly figured out how to help his hero. You can also act like Nekhlyudov in Tolstoy's Resurrection, in the episode that marked the beginning of the tragedy of Katyusha Maslova. In the depths of his soul, Nekhlyudov felt that this was not good, bad, even very bad, that there could be grave consequences for Katyusha herself, but he did not begin to think, but uttered a trivial phrase to himself: "Well, because everyone does it"- and calmed down for a long time. A few such conclusions in difficult life circumstances, such as Nekhlyudov did, and a person will lose the ability to worry, to find the right solutions, become indifferent, lost for science, for real creative work, for the concept of "highly educated person".

Every question that is put forward by life, no matter how complex it is, no matter how long it takes to resolve it, no matter how difficult its solution, must be definitely and completely resolved. Decided by the person who faces this issue, maybe not on his own, but with the help of his comrades, but necessarily resolved. This is the first and indispensable rule. When questions arise in front of a person, he feels an urgent need to answer them, then sooner or later he will find answers. There will always be order in the head and soul of such a person. There will be order in business. It is impossible at the present level of science and human knowledge to do anything in an atmosphere of disorder and uncertainty. Long before our days, this was anticipated by Rene Descartes - his wonderful saying “order frees thoughts” is absolutely true and has been tested millions of times by life. How can one be an educated person and have an unliberated, fettered thought? So: the obligatory solution of all vital issues, the comprehension of the "physical meaning" (Suvorov: "Awareness and vigilance above all"). Always find meaning in everything, get to the bottom of the truth, understand what's what. Everything must be in a certain system. Order in thoughts, feelings, in all matters. "You put it farther, you take it closer". (Russian proverb).

II. DO NOT CLOSED ONLY IN YOUR FIELD OF ACTIVITY. STUDY AND COMPREHENSIVE ART

Never lock into one, never be only "specialist in the left nostril". (L.N. Tolstoy). A narrow specialist and a narrow professional cannot even know their own field well. This was beautifully formulated two hundred years ago by J. J. Rousseau: “When you study the sciences, you become more and more convinced of how different sciences support and help each other. Of course, the human brain is not able to master all the sciences. But, if you do not have some idea of ​​​​other sciences, then in your own you are in complete darkness. ”.

Where to begin? - From art. This is the easiest and most important thing. Art is always needed by everyone. In different eras, different types of art prevail. Now theater and cinema, music, literature, architecture and painting are of the greatest importance. One has to live in art. To see more or less interesting performances and paintings. Know public opinion and the opinion of criticism, even if it is wrong. To have your own opinion, even if it is strange and unlike what they say or write, it is important that it is not far-fetched and empty and original for the sake of originality, but that it comes from the heart, excites you and your comrades with whom you discuss this issue. Try to have such conversations as much as possible, not be afraid to say too much, risky, even paradoxical. After conversations with friends, the risky will turn out to be reliable, the paradoxes will cease to be paradoxes, the superfluous will be appropriate.

Just as chess cannot be mastered without some knowledge of theory, so art in any form cannot be understood without some knowledge of theory, however small. It is necessary to read books on art - biographies of great artists, monographs of individual artists, to see and have many reproductions, at least in the form of postcards. Read musicological studies, when listening to music, strain your imagination as much as possible in order to understand and see what the composer saw when he wrote music.

If we discard difficult questions and formulate it very roughly, it will turn out like this: a cultured person should know at least a little art. What is a little? These, of course, are not the names of famous actors and a few standard phrases: “I don’t care about this,” or: it’s “very fresh, juicy, etc..”

III. DO NOT BE AFRAID OF DIFFICULTIES AND DANGERS, BUT GO TO MEET THEM

There will be a hydroelectric power station

If a person is inquisitive, seeks, thinks, has his own views and judgments, is this enough? - No. The hero described by Dostoevsky in White Nights is something like this, and Dostoevsky clearly shows that this is good, but not enough. He is sweet, sympathetic, you can love him, but you should not fall in love. You have to fall in love with someone else. What kind of “other” he is, Dostoevsky does not know exactly and therefore draws him schematically, but this “other” does not look like the hero of the story “White Nights”, this is indisputable.

What is needed besides searches, reflections and knowledge of art? Harmonious development is needed. If a person lives only with his head, this is very one-sided. It takes a lot of physical effort. Sport. Tourism. Dangers. Overcoming great physical difficulties. Overcoming fear. Courage. Finally, we need an infinite love for nature and knowledge of it. How well Lermontov knew this! His hero (Pechorin) is mysterious, like everything mysterious is incomprehensible, but the love of danger and the boundless love for nature of Lermontov's hero do not raise any doubts.

There are many newer examples:

Heartbreaking House by Bernard Shaw, Thor Heyerdahl's journey on the Kon-Tiki, a hiking expedition to the North Pole, the feat of Hans Has, who calmly filmed sharks with an underwater movie camera, the exploration and filming of volcanoes, and much more. In real life, if only it is bright, interesting and productive, there are always many risks and dangers. Great hardening and the ability to overcome difficulties are needed, the ability, figuratively speaking, to climb into cold restless water without hesitation. There is no better way to develop these qualities in yourself than to go in for sports, tourism, live in nature and know it well.

The father is right who teaches his son the art of swimming in the sea in stormy weather, when the surf crashes with noise on the shore. In this, of course, there is a certain amount of risk - well, well, nothing happens without risk, but he will bring up the right character in his son for life. Skillful, calm overcoming of real dangers with real risk - what could be better for proper education!

There are wonderful literary examples that perfectly prepare a person for the romance of struggle, courage, and overcoming fear. First of all, this is Lermontov's Mtsyri.

George Sand's fairy tale "Wings of Courage" is also wonderful (about how the fishermen forgot the boy on a rocky island at night, the wind rose, and waves began to roll over this island). These and many similar works need to be known from childhood. It is good from the age of ten or twelve to know by heart verses from the Scandinavian epic Fritjof:

“No lodging for the night in houses, no tents on ships.
Sleep on a military shield, a damask sword in your hand,
And a tent - a blue sky.
As the storm rises, raise the sails,
Let it rumble, let it roar, coward, who will sow the sail.
Rather than be a coward, die sooner".

The unity of ideas, thoughts, actions, a sense of responsibility, the impossibility of any empty paper proposals is brought up in the best possible way when communicating with nature, in overcoming difficulties and danger. This unity develops into a unity of character - a combination of deep intelligence, knowledge with courage and prowess. Russian literature has always dreamed of such a hero, but literature could not create him, did not have time, because such characters appeared only at the crest of the wave of revolution. Dostoevsky dreamed that Myshkin and Rogozhin were one person, but he did not know how to do this - literature does not create life, people create it, literature only reflects this creativity, sometimes in its earliest, barely noticeable phases ...

To formulate an idea when it is just being born is a great thing - supporters, successors are found, talented people are found who will move forward, develop the idea, test it in practice and put it into action.

IV. KNOWLEDGE. ACQUISITION OF THEM SLOWLY

At the Kyiv hydroelectric power station, 1966

Knowledge is of great importance. Although the great French scientist Michel Montaigne said that “one must have a not well-filled, but well-arranged head”- and this is absolutely true - you still need to have a large amount of knowledge.

To find a good way to accumulate knowledge is to have it in abundance. Probably at least half of the time is spent on replenishing the stock of knowledge, and if you do not have a good way to acquire knowledge, there will be too little of it. It is difficult to talk about numbers, even more difficult to verify them - but sometimes one hears such a distribution: knowledge gained at school, institute, graduate school - ten percent, own experience - two to four percent, the rest is divided equally between literature and conversations with friends, with people practical life. What is the method of obtaining the greater part - eighty-six percent of knowledge? It can be called in one word - gradually.

It's good to have your own big library. It is absolutely not necessary to read all the books that are there, it is important to know where the book is and what it talks about. A question arose. You heard something. Something interested you. They took the appropriate book, read a few pages, and sometimes the whole book - and the answer of the books on the wave of interest is easy to remember, quickly and in the vast majority of cases for life.

You are worried about something. You do not know how and what to do - you asked a friend, you did everything according to his recommendation, and what you learned at the same time, you will know well and forever. If the answer to the question posed is not contained in any of your books, go to the appropriate library, look into the encyclopedia first - this is the key to most knowledge and, of course, everyone should have it. The encyclopedia always has a bibliographic index - use it, look for the books you need, read them, if it's interesting, talk to knowledgeable people. "An evening of conversation with a worthy person is more than ten years of reading books"- says Eastern wisdom. In other words, live in such a way that you are always interested in something, gradually look for answers from comrades and books - this is the surest way to get a lot of knowledge.

Of great importance for the formation of "gradually" travel. In addition to travel in the literal sense - a vacation trip to new places, a new country or on a special route, a trip on a business trip - also use another, more powerful way - do not sit too long in one job, do not sit too long in one city. Do not be the Old-timer Hinikat (the hero of the story "At Our House" ....). What is "not too long" - four, five years, no more, in one place. Only after many years of activity, if you manage to tightly saddle a big problem that will be of infinite interest to you and useful to people, can you spend more time in one place and in one city - if, of course, the problem can be solved without leaving this city. The given figures, of course, are not the law - in some cases they may vary, but for most cases of modern life, they are, in all likelihood, close to optimal.

If you deal with the same issue for too long, you can become a very narrow specialist. As noted above, specialization is necessary, but too narrow specialization is contrary to modern life, modern technology, modern science.

V. THE STUDY OF POLICY. PERMANENT AND DEEP UNDERSTANDING OF HER

Interest in political life and knowledge of it. Modern life is full of politics. In no historical epoch has politics played such a role, touched the fate of every person so closely, would not have had such a strong influence on his mood and well-being, as now.

Beethoven's note to his friend is known: “... I could not come on Thursday, as there were hostilities. I'll be back on Saturday…” It can be seen that the military actions did not bother the great composer. Those times are gone forever. Problems of construction, individual industries, issues of various trends in art - all this is politics.

The unexpectedness and spasmodicity of politics for people with little knowledge seems incredible, impossible - everything incomprehensible prevents one from correctly orienting oneself. With the modern development of radio, cinema, an abundance of illustrated magazines, exhibitions, festivals, sports competitions, mass foreign tourism - each person receives diametrically opposite information from the same events. If it is not enough to know politics well enough, the mind is utterly confused, confused. How deeply this confusion affects a person is evident from such striking examples as the suicide of Stefan Zweig and the alleged suicide of Hemingway. The situation is complicated by the fact that not everything can be published; many things are written schematically, conditionally, not to the full extent. Nothing requires such a deep and comprehensive knowledge of theory as politics. Dialectics, philosophy, the works of the classics - without this it is never possible to comprehend the essence of what is happening and the immediate prospects. One must have a taste for these things, not look at the social sciences and philosophy as something purely academic, bookish. Many sciences used to be bookish, divorced from life, purely theoretical.

Atom, electrons, protons, etc. - interesting, amusing, incomprehensible ... Who would have thought that Hiroshima would be born from this ... The same thing happened before with electricity. In the old physics courses, the presentation of electricity began like this: “Take amber, rub it - pieces of paper will stick to it”. Next came the presentation of electrostatics, Galvani's experiments, Ohm's laws, Kirchhoff's, the rule of the left and right hand, etc. All this was bookish, theoretical, uninteresting and seemed completely out of touch with life. But from this, electrical engineering and electronics were born, which permeate all modern life and which cannot be understood and developed without understanding all, it would seem, at first glance, ancient and lifeless theories.

What has been said about politics can be formulated in a shorter way: to be a son of your century and a passionate patriot of your Motherland, not to shy away from topical problems and to know them, to live in them, to cheer for them, to understand them well. Then you will have in your hands the key to understanding life and to the heart of the overwhelming majority of people, to their understanding of life, and people, in turn, will teach you a lot - that which you cannot read in any books, newspapers, magazines.

VI. MANDATORY PARTICIPATION IN EVENTS

Let's assume that you have mastered to a large extent an understanding of modern politics, you are well versed in many issues, you are rooting for current problems. is that enough? - No, not enough. “Everyone imagines himself a strategist, seeing the battle from the side,” said the great Georgian poet Rustaveli. "I think I'm a strategist"... It is unacceptable to "think" anything in today's life. Modern life is based on technology. The vast majority of people - workers, technicians, engineers - live in technology. One worker who worked on a large Siberian construction site had a wonderful idea: “Modern technology does not like and does not forgive mistakes. Make a mistake once, and she will punish you three times". How can you "think"? It is necessary not to "think", but to be.

Although in a very small area, but be, be sure to be.

Real characters are forged only in the midst of current events. It is much more likely to meet interesting people where it is difficult, where it is dangerous, where the fate of the case is being decided. To meet such people means to learn a lot from them. Being a participant in events means finding a common language with interesting people and learning even more. Not only learn, but also gain your own experience and improve your own character, which is also very important.

One may ask why Frederic Chopin, living almost all his life in France, wrote such great music? The fact is that writers, poets and people of art cannot be identified with people of practical life. In addition, the life of society goes through periods. In some periods, knowledge and experience are accumulated, the most complex issues are gradually resolved - this is a hidden, invisible process. There comes the moment of the greatest concentration of formulations, conclusions, opinions, theories. A writer, artist or poet, having a sensitive soul, hears and feels these formulations and conclusions and transfers them to canvas or paper and embodies them in the sounds of music. And in the 19th century there was, as it were, an explosion - a powerful galaxy of writers and poets appeared, which managed to transfer the ideas that had accumulated over a century and a half or two to paper and make clear to many what was previously implicit and unknown.

Art, perhaps more than anything else, is the fruit of collective creativity. Everything that is written on humanitarian topics is true only under certain conditions and at certain times. Life is built continuously and does not stop. The seventies of our century are far from the situation that was in the XIX century - there is still a hidden process of searches, formulations, new truths, a new way of life and thinking. The jump comes later. Therefore, now there are fewer such writers and poets as there were in the 19th century.

This article is addressed not to writers, but to practitioners who want to be educated people. They cannot wait until new Herzens and Turgenevs appear, but they must climb into all the cracks, be in the most difficult places, at work related to solving the most pressing problems, at the most pressing construction sites, participate in events - not an observer, but a direct participant and nothing to be afraid of. If there was a war of 1941-1945, then it was necessary to be there. If the fate of the country was decided at the post-war construction sites in Siberia, you also had to be there, etc.

VII. THE MAIN METHOD OF CREATIVE WORK IS ACHIEVE THE UNITY OF MIND AND FEELING

Modern life puts forward complex, intractable problems, both social and personal. The same problems often arise at work, in practice. At the beginning of the article, we wrote that you shouldn’t leave issues that worry you unresolved, you shouldn’t put them off, or, even worse, get used to living with unresolved issues and just do what everyone else is doing - the rational thread is lost and life becomes uninteresting. Many questions can be solved by logical reasoning, however, as life, technology and science become more complicated, there are less and less easily solved questions.

How to be?

Once upon a time, the same question faced mathematicians - arithmetic problems became more and more difficult. It became impossible to solve them by logical reasoning. As a result, algebra was invented, which greatly simplified the solution of complex problems and solved many arithmetic problems that seemed unsolvable. Of course, art cannot be called the algebra of human thought, but art (music, painting, theater, etc.), its methods and techniques can greatly facilitate the solution of complex problems and solve many insoluble problems. In human consciousness, there are two systems, as it were, - the logical system of the mind and the system of feelings, moods and intuition. Previously, it was believed that moods and feelings were not directly related to serious matters, or moreover, it was believed that this was something harmful, a hindrance. "Give free rein to your heart - it will lead you into captivity"- this formula is false. In literature and art, the problem of fighting passions was discussed for a long time: it was believed that there was some kind of established order of life that should be followed, and that human feelings, moods, passions interfere, lead aside - this is also not true. Even Gogol, however, from a slightly different perspective, but still talks about this problem ( "There are passions and passions"). The struggle of two principles in a person is a very old problem, dating back to ancient ideas about Apollo and Dionysus.

In Russian literature of the 19th century and the beginning of ours, a lot of attention is paid to the problem of reason and feeling. “With my mind I understand that this is not good, but my feeling tells me something else ...”, or: “from the point of view of the mind, everything seems to be fine, but some kind of hidden feeling depresses, which I cannot explain and determine what is the matter”. “In my mind, I understand that this person is good, but my heart says something else” etc. So what's the matter? Should there always be this duality?

In practice, such questions are solved quite simply. There are strong-willed principles in a person or strong-willed people - a “volitional” decision is made, and any split disappears. There are two arguments against this approach.

There is a magnificent reasoning by G. Heine. He says that we usually respect strong-willed consistent people and forgive them a lot. But, if you understand it properly, then these people often turn out to be "slaves of their obsolete thoughts." Another argument suggests itself - in modern life and, in particular, in technology, it is quite well known that "volitional" decisions in the vast majority of cases are very doubtful. The "volitional" way is not good. Numerous examples in literature and life confirm this idea. It is impossible to solve the question posed in isolation from life and the situation. Obviously, if there are significant contradictions in life, then there can be no inner harmony.

Why did the Decembrists go to a grandiose, complex and almost hopeless struggle, to a colossal, almost one hundred percent risk, although it would seem that they personally had everything - beloved wives, wonderful families, a secure life ...

But imagine that great changes have taken place in social life, many of the contradictions that have tormented the people of the century have been eliminated, and people, of course, have not solved all the problems, but feel that they are on the right path - what then? Will the harmony of feelings and thoughts come by itself? Apparently not. Is there a technique that would ensure this harmony? First of all, we must turn to art. Art is an area of ​​human activity in which no volitional decisions are possible. If voluntarism were introduced into art, it would cease to be art. But art poses, leads to solutions and often solves questions of great importance, does it simply, quickly, well and reliably. Contemporary art is a school of life. Gorky, Dostoevsky, Beethoven, Balzac, Tolstoy, Surikov... Is there even one question of life that they would not correctly pose, well, comprehensively illuminated and in many cases resolved? Sometimes only an outline of the solution is given, but this is also extremely important ...

The fact is that a person, long before he learned to think, knew how to feel, had moods, emotions, etc. Mind and thinking appeared much later and, because of this, are in many ways less perfect. Intuitively, you will solve any question in one and a half to two seconds. In order to solve this problem by the method of logical thinking, it may take several hours, and perhaps even months. The solution in the latter case will be exact, correct, in a huge number of cases absolutely correct, but very slow.

Modern life raises very complex questions that cannot be solved by any direct logical reasoning. Without Euclid, modern science is impossible, but the times of Euclid are gone forever. The iron logic of proving Euclid's geometric theorems, which schoolchildren around the world are studying to this day, apparently corresponded well to the level, or rather, the volume of problems that existed at that time. But try to solve some modern question with pure logic - you will come across a palisade of difficulties. There will be many times more unknowns than equations, or there will be hundreds of equations and unknowns. In a small number of cases where your problem can be coded into mathematical form, modern programming and electronic machines will come to the rescue, but the number of problems that can be put into mathematical form is a very small part of the problems. The vast majority of modern problems are solved hundreds and thousands of times on electronic computers until the results begin to converge. Something similar happens in the human brain. Intuitively, you check and plan dozens of solutions - most of them go subconsciously. If the variants of your random arbitrary decisions begin to approach the truth, you get one mood, if they diverge - another. It is difficult to describe this process, but it is easy to understand, knowing and studying real, great music, great art.

Carefully studying, using examples of works of art, how thousands of random, intuitive decisions begin to move towards some goal, meet obstacles in their path, sometimes overcome them with great difficulty, you feel some kind of commonality of doubts, difficulties, failures, charms and disappointments, that the author had, with the same feelings that you had when solving some complex issue, during some complex and difficult struggle.

At the beginning of your activity, it often seems to you, when studying some question for the practical purpose, that “the farther into the forest, the more firewood”, and that, as it were, both the struggle and the study are hopeless ... But you listen and study the real music, real art and you understand that you are at the beginning of the journey, that it’s just that, as often happens, you underestimated the upcoming difficulties of the work, that the author whose works you read, listen to or watch had the same doubts, the same cooling, such the seeming hopelessness, but some vague, barely noticeable feelings became a guiding star for the author, he believed them and went on the captivatingly clear path of a correct, joyful solution of the issue ... You noticed the same vague vague feelings in your soul at the moment of struggle, doubt, searches, failures, disappointments and did not attach any importance to them, passed by without seeing how the author went after the right mood and feeling, and you follow your feeling and go out into the shining expanses of victory, decision, achievement. This is the method of the unity of feeling and reason, a method widely used by art. Mastering this method is difficult, but necessary. To do this, you need to know and understand art well.

The strength of the stated method lies in the fact that art, much earlier than science and technology, entered the field of complex issues that can only be resolved by the method of uniting feelings and reason, by intuitively evaluating a huge number of options, choosing from them a strictly limited number of the most probable and logical development of only these few options.

Otherwise, such phenomena of thought as the feat of the engineer Belilyubsky, who personally designed almost all the bridges on the Trans-Siberian Railway, would not be explained. It would be impossible to explain the phenomenon of Chekhov, who combined the greatest thinker and writer in himself.

Without mastering the method of unity of feeling and reason, it is impossible to conduct real creative work, it is impossible to independently solve complex modern issues. Without the ability to independently solve complex issues, it is impossible to understand what is happening, it is impossible to know a truly modern life, it is impossible to put things in order in one's soul, to free one's thought for comprehension and knowledge.

VIII. “FROM ANCIENT WONDERFUL STONES, FOLD THE STAGES OF THE FUTURE” (N.K. RERICH)

We live in performances. The idea of ​​morality, the idea of ​​honor, duty. Ideas about duties, about good and evil, about love, fidelity, about life rules, about laws, about the state, etc. Representations help us navigate complex issues, make the right decision, and save time. But 20-30 years pass and ideas change - sometimes a lot, sometimes a little.

It is important to be armed with modern ideas. Representations almost always lag behind life, and even more so, the faster life changes. The more active and active the epoch, the faster, the more dangerous it is to use outdated ideas. There can be a lot of confusion about the subjects you study and the things you do. How to make the right ideas? Where to get them? A lot has already been said: interesting work, penetration into the thickness of events, active participation in them - this is necessary, but not enough. You need to know a lot, and know from life, from primary sources. You need to have a solid “measurement basis” both in time and space, you need to know what other peoples think (and thought) on the issue of interest to you at other times, what your people thought on this issue several centuries ago. Then temporary opportunistic, random layers will disappear and correct ideas will appear. The situation is facilitated by the fact that history to some extent repeats itself, develops in a spiral manner, and one can always find that turn of the spiral, the study of which (or at least acquaintance with some facts of life and works of art characteristic of this turn) will be fruitful. It may seem that such a study is available only to specialists, but it is not.

Anyone who owns a true knowledge of art, the laws of its development, its history, for this the most complex and great truths become accessible and understandable, he will draw from ancient sources a lot of fresh, relevant, essential today and will be able to transfer from neighboring, seemingly distant areas in their area that will allow you to create new ideas, as the great Russian artist N.K. Roerich said: “From the ancient wonderful stones lay down the steps of the future”.

How true these words are, we are convinced by the example of early and modern constructivism. The constructivism of the 1920s and 1930s was feeble, pale, and ultimately failed. Only a very few outstanding, maybe brilliant personalities managed, following the path of early constructivism, to achieve good results. This is, first of all, Mayakovsky himself. Formula of early constructivism: "Let's chase the stories..."(V. Mayakovsky) and "I will write a tragedy such that Shakespeare's tragedy will look like a farce or a miserable vaudeville"(him). Now the absurdity of these formulas is obvious.

In 1930 in Moscow, in the Museum. A.S. Pushkin (then called the Museum of Fine Arts), an exhibition of ancient masters of art was arranged, the “Madonna Lita” of the Leonardo school, magnificent paintings by Van Dyck, Titian and Rubens were brought from Leningrad - everyone gasped and realized that to create works, in front of which Shakespeare's tragedies will look "like a farce or a pitiful vaudeville" is impossible, unnecessary and, most importantly, clearly meaningless. The supporters of early constructivism took the success of the exhibition very hard and clearly felt that the people were not following them. Years passed, and a new constructivism appeared, this time in art. Outwardly, it looks like the old constructivism, but its content follows Roerich's formula. Just like early constructivism, modern constructivism asserts that art should change its form in accordance with the change in the form of things that daily surround a person.

But if in the early 1930s, relying on the formula “we will drive the horse of history”, they recklessly destroyed monuments of ancient architecture, now they are being restored. Our interest is great, and Andronevsky Monastery, Kizham, Suzdal, to the works of Andrei Rublev and Rostov Yaroslavsky with its bell ringing, to the ancient wooden architecture of the North. Our ideas about these monuments have changed.

What do you need to know from previous eras? First of all, its history and its ancient art. Recently, it has been well popularized, many good and understandable monographs have appeared, a number of good films. It is necessary to get acquainted with these materials, to understand them and comprehend. It is even better after studying literary sources to travel to places where ancient monuments have been preserved.

The study of one's own history always amazes with the enormity of the tasks that have faced our country for many hundreds of years, it amazes with the skill, talent and genius of the people, who brilliantly emerged victorious from the most difficult situations, often created by their own great aspirations.

Let's look at the construction of the Moscow Kremlin, moving along the opposite bank of the river from the Stone Bridge to Moskvoretsky. You will immediately remember the wonderful words of Mendeleev, spoken by him about science and practically close to art: “How free, at ease and joyfully one lives in science.” The towers seem to be turning all the time - so as to be more beautiful and more pleasing to the human eye. The impression of spaciousness is enhanced by the different scale of the towers of St. Basil the Blessed, perfectly inscribed in the architecture of the Kremlin walls. Different eras, different styles, but how everything is merged into a single, amazingly integral ensemble, how obvious is the idea of ​​a triumphant, free mind. How pleasant it is to indulge in reflection in the sight of the magnificent buildings of the Kremlin - it seems that many people, wise by experience, with radiantly clear thoughts, free judgments and opinions, understand and support you, encourage you!

The Moscow Kremlin is a reflection of an interesting and unique Russian culture: it has absorbed both the East and the West and, most of all, has created an inimitable beauty of its own. The work is masterful, first-class - the seams are not visible. In fact, according to the mark of the battlements, the wall was built by the Italians, and the tents over the towers, after many years, were built by the Russians, in the Russian style! Who can guess this without knowing the documents? One of the towers of the Kremlin - Borovitskaya - is the sister of the eastern tower - the Syuyumbike tower in Kazan - where is the junction, where are the contradictions? They are not visible - again the iron solidity of the ensemble.

The central building, the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, was built by an Italian, and the outermost buildings, the Godunovskaya Tower and the Filaretovskaya extension, were built by Russians. Again, the joints are not visible, again the steel logic of unity.

Fantastic, fabulous firebird - St. Basil's Cathedral - perfectly harmonizes with the Gothic style of the Spasskaya Tower and with all the unique buildings of the Kremlin! - this is Russian culture. A wonderful fusion of the great cultures of the world and, like any fusion, it has new, previously unknown qualities... Of course, it is difficult to understand the great music of the Kremlin at once. There's a lot to see, a lot to read, a lot to think about.

The East had a huge influence on Russian culture. No one knows the East as well as our country. There are many reasons. Firstly, we live within the state borders together with the Eastern peoples - we directly draw on their experience, culture, and wisdom. We are also connected with the East historically. The best minds of Russia were drawn to the East: Griboedov, Lermontov, Pushkin, Tolstoy, Przhevalsky, Kozlov. What drew them there? - awareness of the great importance of understanding Eastern culture for Russia. Music by Borodin, Mussorgsky, Rubinstein, Rimsky-Korsakov, Glinka. Where, what people of the world so clearly, clearly and magnificently revealed the East? In the Soviet period in the history of our country, this trend was even more intensified. The East was understood even better and brought closer to the millions. The works of the remarkable Soviet scientists S.F. Oldenburg and Bertels gave a tremendous amount. The peoples of the Soviet East themselves made grandiose steps after the revolution and helped to truly understand and appreciate the East. Not surprising. After all, the great sages of the world lived on the territory of the Soviet East: there lived the great Mohammed Al-Khwarizmi, the true inventor of algebra, the first person who, 800 years ago, correctly understood that in Archimedes' joke there was a grandiose explosion force - the force of the revolution of science.

Saadi from Shiraz, Nizami, Alisher Navoi, Ferdowsi - who knew them before the revolution? - only narrow specialists. Now the classics of the East are published in our mass circulation. "Gulistan", "Tales of the Parrot", "Ramayana", "Shah Nameh" are now available to millions.

What is the value of Eastern culture for us? The East embarked on the path of creating powerful centralized states much earlier, knows what problems centralization raises, knows how they are solved, knows what a huge impact state problems can have on private life. Whatever the parable of the great Saadi, it is wonderful advice for a modern person. Wise advice, calm, detailed, imbued with wonderful humane ideas. Everything is here: advice to a person who has extensive experience, advice to a young person on how to properly behave with people ... “Pearls of useful exhortations are strung on a thread of elegant reasoning, and the bitter medicine of advice is mixed with the honey of wit” (Saadi).

Secondly, (we have already talked about this), the culture of the East is organically included in Russian culture and it is difficult to understand it without understanding the East. It is impossible for an educated person not to know the culture of his country. Someone has rightly said these days: “The strength of projects is not that they are made, but that they are constantly improved” - the same can be said about ideas and ideas.

Knowing the culture of your people, understanding how the main ideas are constantly changing and constantly improving, gives tremendous power of orientation in all matters, saves a lot of time, eliminates the need to solve the overwhelming and unnecessary task of inventing everything again and again and, again, helps to create new ones. , consonant with the era of representation.

The acquaintance of the remarkable Russian artist Polenov with the East had interesting consequences. The finest connoisseur and poet of Russian nature set off on a long and serious journey to the East. There he saw a different nature, other people, other colors. Returning to Russia, on the Oka River, he saw in Russian nature what he had not seen before: the subtlest, invisible nuances of natural colors. After he saw these colors on a large scale, brighter in the East, they began to play, made themselves felt, new, wonderful, previously inaccessible to the "naked eye" colors of Russian nature were revealed.

IX. "NOTHING HUMAN IS ALIEN TO ME"

The previous sections touched on many issues - ideas, knowledge, active participation in events, knowledge of art, history. However, for an educated person this is not enough.

We must love life in all its manifestations. Otherwise, both ideas and work on oneself will be one-sided. Everything can disappear under the pressure of life circumstances. Love, happiness, life, joy, passion, struggle, charm, disappointment, bits of experience found by oneself, comprehension, failures, anxieties - all this is characteristic of a person and it is impossible to refuse it. The time of asceticism, self-denial is over! Modern culture, if only to know it to a minimum degree and be able to use it, makes it possible to do without these extremely difficult means for a person. There is no need to try to squeeze yourself into some pre-conceived scheme, no need to be slaves to your obsolete thoughts. "Blessed is he who was young from his youth." It is human nature to love - love. It is human nature to be happy - be happy. Do not contradict life, but know it, understand and love it. It would seem obvious provisions, but how to practically achieve them? Why love? - because work, except for the most elementary, goes well when you love it, and life is not elementary.

We are far from saying one of Balzac's heroes: "Life is a craft, it needs to be learned" but there are a few things you need to know and follow. “An educated person does not eat from a kerosene stove, does not breathe bad air, does not make misfortune because of a lost gum”(A.P. Chekhov). First of all, it is necessary to organize your life well. The improvement of life must begin with work. Recently, a worker, speaking at a large meeting at one of the Siberian construction sites, said: “First of all, work improves, and then earnings”. Maybe this is not quite accurate in the literary sense, but the meaning is deep and correct.

Choosing a job to your liking is not easy - too many factors affect the successful solution of this issue. Here are natural inclinations, and the objective situation, and the rapid growth of the economy, when the traditional transfer of a specialty from father to son is not always possible, here are family circumstances, often a lack of experience at the moment when it is most needed, not always a clear prospect. Confusion of opinions, unfortunately, is firmly established in our lives. But the more complex the issue, the more attention, effort, effort and talent must be applied to its solution. The experience of advanced people and advanced teams shows that this is quite possible. Earnings, material conditions are a very important aspect of life, and it is absurd to ignore this aspect. One cannot, of course, reduce everything to material conditions, since any one-sidedness is ugly (the proverb “A one-sided specialist is like a flux” is well known). There are great opportunities in our country. Do not just cling to familiar places. There is no need to be afraid to leave - Angara, Yenisei, Lena, Amur, Vitim, Vilyui, Khantayka, Amguema - you can’t list everything. And to leave not just for a long ruble, but for the knowledge of life, to leave in order to find yourself in the thick of things. Work on large Siberian construction sites, in the North, is not only the solution of material issues, it is a huge life and production experience. No disorder in personal life is intolerable (remember the above wonderful words of Rene Descartes "Order frees thought"). How can a person become educated if his thought is constrained, not free? But the absence of happiness and love is also intolerable. You can achieve them, but you can’t run away from them, all the more you can’t push back their decisions. It is appropriate to recall the statement of Suvorov: "The enemy is pushed back - failure, surrounded, destroyed - good luck". An enemy for any person, but for a triple educated person - disorder and disorder in his personal life, lack of happiness, lack of love. Therefore, first of all, you need to think about this. Love, happiness is not the topic of this article, but I would like to note two points.

First. Nothing happens by itself, not even love. Nature has endowed man with everything - the ability to sing and dance, draw, love and many others. But by nature, everything is given in very small quantities. Then it all depends on the person. So is love. It is possible at a glance. Maybe this is even the best love, but then you need to support it, cherish it, take care of it like a living plant, otherwise it will wither, wither, or, conversely, with good care, it will bloom.

Second. To a comprehensively developed person, an educated person, living according to the principle formulated in the great words of Marx - "Nothing human is alien to me", and happiness and true love are more accessible.

In conclusion, I would like to say that the article does not claim to be complete coverage of the issue. An educated person needs to know much more. The article is just a few pieces of advice that seem essential to the author. True, there is a good Indian proverb - “The easiest thing is to give advice, the hardest thing is to follow it”. However, the tips are helpful. Maybe this article will be useful.

Iosif Sergeevich Zavalishin

NOTES

In whatever area you are: in political, industrial or life (Note by I.S. Zavalishina).

Once I asked I.S. Zavalishin: what are the best routes to explore my country. He said that the best place to start is with the Kremlin. Then - the boulevard ring. Then the Golden Ring, ancient Russian cities. Further, if possible, the Urals, the Siberian rivers ... “We must leave everything,” said I.S. Zavalishin, “and travel along the Volga, along the Angara, to Baikal, the Yenisei ...” Then it was difficult to implement. Now there are a lot of travel agencies, but they are more likely to send you to the Canary Islands.

I.S. Zavalishin himself was like that. Obviously, such people never set personal enrichment as their main goal. The homespun wisdom of the new Russian philistinism, on the contrary, urges “not to be idiots”, on which “everyone rides” and to drive yourself. Is this ideology going to win? Will my growing children and grandchildren also be sucked into this quagmire of vulgarity? Once I hinted at Zavalishin about a career. He sat me down in front of him and said: “You have to decide for yourself once and for all what you want: a career or meaningful big things. If it's a career, then I can't teach you anything. Go learn from someone else."

It seems to me that these wishes today have acquired a new meaning. With the change in the socio-economic situation in the country, in particular, in the national economy, there are no large construction projects on the periphery of Russia, cities are not being reconstructed and developed, new ones are not being built - this is not even discussed. As a result, a number of problems have arisen. The sharp concentration of construction in the Center, or rather, in Moscow, leads to its total development, which is not safe for the historical center. Many of the leading design institutes that worked for the country are idle, and design has been dispersed among small firms. There were unemployed workers. And this is not a complete list of problems in this area. (N.I. Zavalishin)

DOWNLOAD: I.S.ZAVALISHIN. LIFE. IDEAS. PROJECTS ( , )

Compilation, editing, comments Belyakov E.A., Zavyalova N.I., 2017.

This book is released into the public domain by the authors. We remind you that works that have passed into the public domain can be freely used by any person without payment of royalties. At the same time, non-property copyrights must be respected: the right of authorship, the right to a name and the right to protect the reputation of the author.

1. Read more

The more complex and unusual the books, the better. Complex constructions, long, detailed sentences, rare words, abstruse articles from our magazine, and especially poetry - a real "Rastishka" for your brain.

2. Drum on the table

Better yet, make it a rule to accompany the music you hear: on your knee, on the tabletop or on a freshly bought tom-tom - it doesn't matter. Palms or chopsticks. Neuroscientist Anirud Patel from San Diego believes that the sense of rhythm plays an important role in learning. After all, the basal ganglia are responsible for it - the parts of the brain involved in motor functions.

3. Listen to classical music

Especially Mozart. In 1995, psychologist Frances Rauscher tricked thirty rats into a room. For two months, the Sonata for two pianos in C major was periodically performed there. After the experiment, it turned out that the animals began not only to dance better, but also to run the maze faster and with fewer errors than the other group of rats who lived these two months in silence.

4. Train your memory

London taxi drivers, for example, have an enlarged hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for emotions and memory. What are you worse? ■ Bookmark brainscale.ru. There you will find one of the variants of the "N back" task, developed in 1958 to explore and stimulate the activity of certain areas of the brain, the development of working memory, logical thinking and the ability to concentrate. Try to take the test every day, set aside a few minutes for this at the beginning of the day and the same amount at the end. According to a 2008 study by Suzanne Yeggi, regular training in this task can significantly improve fluid intelligence, enhance a person's working memory, improve logical thinking and the ability to concentrate. ■ After making a list of products that you need to buy, reread it several times and try to remember not their names, but your future path through different departments in the store. Having collected everything in a cart and standing in line, try to calculate the total amount in your mind. If she later turns out to be true, you can buy yourself a bush of spinach as a reward: it is good for memory.

■ Set aside half an hour each day to memorize poetry. The last time you did this was in kindergarten, but all the words flew out of your head at the moment when the official part of the holiday ended and the coffin was lowered into the ground. The content of the poems does not matter.

5. Drink coffee

Caffeine stimulates the release of the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine, which help you stay energized and focused longer. It is important not to overdo it: from a very large dose of caffeine, you will get overexcited and will not be able to think rationally. Caffeine in doses of more than 300 mg (four cups of natural coffee) per day will cause anxiety, headache, tremor, arrhythmia.

6. Albert Einstein

7. Mark Porcius Cato

8. Play chess, checkers and poker

These games can not only make you richer, but also perfectly develop your thinking. If you think you're too good at chess, try playing against the clock as well, so that it doesn't take more than a minute to make a decision.

9. Develop your numerical sense

Yes, you already have it. Take a handful of small change out of your pocket, take a quick look at it and try to calculate the total amount from memory. Véronique Izgård, a cognitive psychologist at Harvard, has found that ancient brain structures are responsible for expense, something like a quasi-lion years old (is there such a number? We're bad at it), but they can develop throughout a lifetime. To check how your HH is developed at the moment, take a short test or a large-scale test, the results of which will even be preserved in the annals of an American university and help advance science. Well, then - develop the CH. The easiest way is to pack things in a bag. When you figure out how best to cram them in, your brain solves the most difficult tasks and trains.

10. Feed your brain right!

Especially if you still cannot fully tell a single poem from the school curriculum, and Facebook reminds you of the birthdays of your friends. ■ Walnuts. Almost the main food for an erudite! They even look like a brain. Five nuts a day - and you will be provided with lecithin, which improves brain function and activates memory. Nuts are also useful if you suddenly live in conditions of high radiation. ■ Fish. Laconic and cold, it is rich in iodine, its meat contains omega-3 fatty acids, which provide a quick influx of energy necessary for the transmission of impulses in brain cells. They also regulate the level of cholesterol in the blood and improve the functioning of blood vessels. If you eat at least 100 grams of fish a day, you will increase the reaction rate and you will reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. ■ Pumpkin seeds. Pour half a glass into your jacket pocket and during office scandals improve your memory and make your brain think faster. All thanks to zinc. ■ Spinach. Add it to your morning omelette two to three times a week. The lutein contained in spinach will protect brain cells from premature aging. ■ Sage. Johns Hopkins University found that sage inhibits the action of amino acids responsible for memory impairment. Now they drink tea with sage every day and everyone remembers everyone.

11. Try to guess the next phrase of the interlocutor

Rebecca Sykes of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is confident that with proper training, people will be able to understand others without words at all - by facial expression, look and other similar signs. The section of the brain that is located behind the right ear and is responsible for intuition is responsible for this.

12. Start a blog

Telling about the events of the day in it, you will not only learn to articulate thoughts clearly, but you will also constantly think of new topics and sharp answers to questions from loyal readers.

13. Koichi Tohei

Writer, aikido master, 10th dan, founder of the Ki-Aikido Style Kii Society “Reading is the cornerstone of intellect. Fill your free time with reading all kinds of books. Read novels, non-fiction, biographies. First, skim through the book quickly to get a general idea of ​​it. If you think it makes sense, read it again. As a result, your brain’s ability to adapt to different circumstances and organize a wide variety of data will increase.”

14. Solve crosswords

Surprisingly, it works: the work of the brain is greatly spurred on by serious crossword puzzles.

15. Konstantin Sheremetiev

To the answer!

Konstantin Sheremetyev cleverly answers our stupid questions.

16. Learn a foreign language

Andrea Macelli, PhD in neurology from the University of London, proves that people who know several foreign languages ​​find it easier to switch between different mental tasks. An additional boost in the development of your brain will give a new way of learning incomprehensible foreign words. ■ Let's say learning a language through parallel translations. On getparalleltranslations.com you will find books with both English and Russian texts on their pages. In fact, these are the same titles with which you love to watch the latest TV shows so much. ■ Vojtek Rinik, a Slovak web developer, believes that words should be learned before they appear in a book. Surprised by his advice, you should feed the unfamiliar text to the wordsfromtext.com service, in response, it will generate a list of the most used words and prompt you to mark unfamiliar ones in it. If desired, they can be printed out with a translation, memorized and already fully armed pounce on unsuspecting literature.

17. Get yourself a smart app

Feeling an unpleasant throb in our too-fast-growing brains, we turned our heads to our mobile phone screens, hoping to find salvation in some mind-numbing game. But what is it? And on mobile devices, do not step a step away from the dominance of developing programs! Memory trainer. Consistently remember pressing multi-colored buttons and repeat them. In fact, this is still the same "N back" task, disguised as a game.
Einstein. Mind training. HD-collection of 30 exercises for the development of logic, memory, counting and attention.
Brain of Genius. A variation on the well-known logical problem, created, according to legend, by Einstein from his reluctance to go to kindergarten.

18. Don't waste time

If you have a free minute at work and you want to look at a couple of meters of funny pictures, it’s better to open Wikipedia and read a “random” article.

19. Walk

It is enough to defile around the house three times a week for half an hour in order to concentrate, learn and think abstractly by 15% better. And it's not just about the flow of oxygen to your neurons withered in the stuffiness of the office: scientists from the Salk Institute have proven that moderate exercise in the fresh air causes the brain to grow new cells.

20. Give your brain a rest

No matter how busy you are, in the process of mental activity, you must definitely rest every hour and a half. For example, doing simple physical exercises or just walking down the hallway and having a cup of coffee. Consider it a necessity. So the analytical centers of the brain better digest the accumulated information and no, no, yes, and come to some unexpected conclusion.

21. Boost your brain

If you ignored all our advice, and tomorrow is the final of the championship “What? Where? When?" League of classmates, there is another way to shake the fat on the cerebral convolutions. ■ Neurometabolic stimulants, they are also nootropics, will help to urgently increase IQ, - agents that have an activating effect on memory and mental activity. Note: completely legal. Words for searching in a pharmacy are: phenotropil, allertec, deprenyl. You can still try Phenibut, but, unlike previous drugs, it is drunk in a course of 2-3 weeks, a single use will not give the proper result. And it should be like this: lack of desire to quit everything and go to sleep, increased reaction speed, slight irritability and the feeling that you are smarter than everyone around. There is, however, a small problem. “The effect of nootropics on the brain has not yet been fully studied,” says Konstantin Anokhin, head of the memory neurobiology laboratory at the Institute of Normal Physiology of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. And one more thing: do not confuse nootropics with dietary supplements. These will also make you smarter for a while, but they act differently and have a weaker effect. These are, say, ginkgo biloba, guarana, eleutherococcus and ginseng root.

22. Play Tetris

A study by American scientists has shown that this classic puzzle can have a positive effect on the development of the human brain. Testing has confirmed that regular practice of playing Tetris can increase the amount of gray matter in the player's brain and improve their thinking abilities. The brains of people who played this puzzle for half an hour a day during the experiment for three months underwent changes in areas related to movement, critical thinking, reasoning, language and information processing.

23. Leonardo da Vinci

24. Anatoly Wasserman

25. Get good sleep

It is during sleep that the brain processes the information collected during the day and forms memories. As calculated by the staff of the University of California at Berkeley, usually an adult needs from 6 to 8 hours of sleep.

26. Read in new ways

You, of course, have already skimmed through this tip and moved on to the next one. Try to go back and do this. ■ Take a pencil and, leading it under the line, read the text. The eye, having caught the movement, will run after the pointer, while reading everything that you slipped into it. Each time you move the pencil faster - this way your eyes will get used to the increased load, the reading speed will increase, and you will be able to absorb information faster. ■ 80% of people mentally pronounce words while reading. You acquired this bad habit while learning to read: you spelled out the text letter by letter, then by syllables, then put them into words. But this is not necessary for understanding. To combat the inner voice, learn to read the text while simultaneously counting to thirty or singing (you can without words) a song. For a week or two you will not understand the content of the text, but gradually everything will return to normal. ■ According to physiologists, in a person who sees something exciting, the pupils expand reflexively. When you reach an interesting place in the text, the same thing is observed: the pupil expands, more light enters the eye, which means that it can catch more information. The only problem is how to make yourself believe that the investigation protocol before you is as interesting as an interview with a cover girl. From a neurophysiological point of view, interest arises when the brain compares new information with what is already in memory. So just guess what exactly can be written in the text. The brain will be forced to compare the information with the real and, willy-nilly, show interest.

27. Get yourself an unusual hobby

(ideas will be thrown to you by our heading "Idea!").
New activities, according to the Salk Institute for Biological Research in the suburbs of San Diego, firstly, perfectly help to escape from the routine, and secondly, they will force your brain to adapt to activities unfamiliar to it and, as a result, to train.

28. Alan Weiss

29. Try new ways to get information

Are you prevented from reading books at a rock concert? Check out audiobooks and audiopodcasts. And on the Internet, sign up for free courses at knowledgestream.ru (coursera.org for English speakers).

30. Stop watching TV

The contemplation of flickering pictures, supposedly designed to give rest to the brain, which has been strained during the day, loads it in the same way as reading or proving theorems. But at the same time it does not develop at all. Conclusion? Throw the TV out the window and put a pot of sage in its place.

We all admire erudite people. How to become the same? The answer is simple - read more!

But staying within your favorite genre will not work. If you want to become erudite, you need to force yourself to explore the unknown shelves of bookstores.

Here are 14 timeless books covering a wide range of topics: politics, science, history, culture and more.

1. Classic: George Orwell, "1984"

George Orwell wrote this anti-communist novel in 1948, describing life in London 36 years later. He predicted a totalitarian state where the government, "Big Brother", always watches over everyone and dictates to a person what to say and what to think.

Some of his predictions have come true - for example, there are cameras everywhere in our cities, and we are searched from time to time to make sure that we do not have weapons with us.

This book is a must read - it talks about the consequences of giving the government too much control over citizens and their lives.

2. Pop culture: JK Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

If you haven't read this or the next six books in the Harry Potter series, run to the bookstore.

The novel is about a boy who finds out on his 11th birthday that he is a wizard and goes to study at Hogwarts School of Wizardry.

3 Pop Culture: John Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

4. Story: Anne Frank, “Refuge. Diary in letters»

5 Science: Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species

The work on the theory of evolution revolutionized science and became the cornerstone of modern biology.

Even if you do not agree with Darwin's theory, you still need to read the book - just for self-education.

And if the evolutionary view is close to you, it is all the more worth reading The Origin of Species to better understand the theory.

6 Science: Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time

This book by the famous theoretical physicist and cosmologist was published in 1988.

In it, Hawking offers a clear explanation of modern scientific concepts - time travel, general relativity and the history of the creation of the universe.

7 Science: Bill Bryson, A Brief History of Nearly Everything

Interestingly, the author is not a scientist. He was just very curious and decided that he wanted to understand science, and then he wrote this book to make it easier for his followers.

8. Philosophy: Sun Tzu, The Art of War

The Art of War was written in the 5th century BC. e., but remains relevant today.

The author is the military strategist Sun Tzu, and his work was a textbook on military affairs. But over time, people found that the techniques described in the book are useful in times of peace, and the recommendations "know yourself" and "know your enemy" help to succeed in a variety of situations.

The book contains 13 chapters describing various aspects of military affairs, and today sports coaches, lawyers and entire corporations use the valuable advice of the ancient commander.

9 Philosophy: Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

This book helps to understand and apply philosophical concepts in real life. It tells about a father and son who travel through the American Northwest on a motorcycle.

There are tons of timeless tips to help make life more fulfilling and happier.

10 Art: William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

The plot of this play revolves around two young lovers whose families are at enmity with each other. The story of forbidden love has become an important part of world culture.

11. Technology: Walter Isaacson, "Steve Jobs"

This compelling biography is based on many years of work, personal interviews with Steve Jobs and more than a hundred of his acquaintances: family members, friends and colleagues.

The book, written by Isaacson at the request of Jobs, explains why one of the founders of Apple had such a simultaneously magnetic and intimidating nature, and tells the story of the construction of Apple and Pixar and their transformation into the huge companies we know today.

This is both a look at the technical industry from the inside, and a source of inspiration that can help you rethink a lot, and a fascinating story about the life of an interesting person.

12. Psychology: David McRaney, "You're Not So Smart"

This book shows that, without realizing it, we are always under the influence of certain psychological attitudes, and no matter how hard we try, we cannot get rid of this influence.

His investment philosophy teaches you to make informed decisions that can bring substantial profits in the long term.

The modern world often forces workers to concentrate on routine work, turning a person into a narrow-minded bore. To avoid such an outcome, it is worth remembering such an old-fashioned concept as erudition.

What is erudition?

An erudite person has broad knowledge in several areas of knowledge and skills. During the Enlightenment, erudition was considered part of the idea of ​​an ideal person who should have the knowledge of a scientist, the skills of an artist, and the body of an athlete. The need for multiple knowledge and skills disappeared during the period of industrialization, when the division of labor excluded physical activity from the worker's chain of activity. At that moment, when the body was shackled by immobility, and the mind began to solve repetitive tasks, the “man” inside us raised a rebellion.

Erudite were Leonardo Da Vinci, Goethe, Benjamin Franklin and Mikhail Lomonosov. It is difficult to compare yourself with them, but it is not necessary to be a genius in order to expand the scope of your interests, gaining new knowledge and skills. Every person has the potential to develop erudition.

Knowledge in several areas helps to see the picture of the world more broadly and act, in this regard, more effectively. Often new ideas and technological breakthroughs appear at the intersection of seemingly unrelated fields. Francis Crick, a physicist by training, was the first to describe the structure of DNA, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize. He said that it was knowledge in the field of physics that helped him to take on those tasks that seemed unsolvable to biologists. A similar example can be taken from the subject environment. For example, smartphones have combined many functions that were previously performed by separate objects: a camera, a GPS navigator, and a computer.

It's hard to be erudite

We all understand that it is pleasant and useful to be an erudite person, but why is it so difficult to become one? The main problem lies in our prejudices about learning. For example, we believe that learning is an activity for young people; that without innate abilities, nothing will work; learning is costly and takes the last effort and time.

Regardless of a person's age, the ability to learn depends on the number of neural connections in the brain. Of course, in children they are formed more intensively, since the brain is in a critical period of development, the second significant breakthrough in brain development occurs between twenty and thirty years. It is wrong to believe that after a person has exchanged his third decade, his ability to learn disappears. Neural connections are formed at any age, the most important thing to remember is that they are easily destroyed. If we do not use neural connections for some time, then they are cut off as unnecessary. Methods for strengthening and creating new connections are considered to be exercise and learning something new, such as a foreign language.

How to find out more?

Be Curious

Scholars are never driven by a desire to impress or achieve fame. Usually they want to learn everything about subjects that interest them. It is never too late to master a hitherto unknown field of knowledge. Moreover, active learning improves brain function, helps the formation of new neural connections and reduces the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease in old age.

Grow in multiple directions

Unlike narrow specialists who live and breathe only their subject of activity, erudite people are interested in studying several areas of knowledge. Isaac Newton and Rene Descartes were not only outstanding mathematicians and physicists, but they also tried to make sense of the world, creating multi-page philosophical works.

Erudites, like children, plunge headlong into numerous activities and hobbies. To regain the ability to be childishly curious, you need to get out of your comfort zone, remember forgotten interests and try something that has long been put off in a distant box.

Don't go overboard with perfectionism

We all have a limited amount of time and energy, so it is not always worth striving to become an expert in all areas of interest. For example, a person who learns 4000 words and phrases of the English language will learn the language by 90%. The one who learns 6000 words and phrases will increase his level to about 97%. Think about it: an extra 2000 words for 7% of knowledge, do you really need it (unless you're a linguist).

Set realistic goals and follow them

All the known history of the erudite were tireless and industrious people. Benjamin Franklin set a small goal at the beginning of each day, and before going to bed he assessed how successfully he could achieve it. Break big goals into small ones, every day evaluate how consistent you have been in your aspirations. The success of every erudite is not luck taken at once, but the result of devotion to science and craft carried through the years.

With erudition, you can be both an attractive person and an inventor. Historical examples prove that the wider the horizons of a person, the more opportunities he has to make a breakthrough in one of the areas close to him. Erudition returns to a person the lost sense of balance and harmony. It's time for all of us to take the first step away from a narrow-minded obsession to an old-fashioned study of the world around us.