Originally Posted by Expatat

Hang around with stupid people, you won't get any smarter but it will feel like you have...




Or do the opposite and the result will be the opposite

I'll put the kettle on.

Originally Posted by Pirahna

Lynne, looking at your birthday, August 28, if it's correct then you were probably disadvantaged from the start.

You will have been the youngest in your class when you first went to school and were having to compete against children almost a year older in your class. Because of the age difference the older kids appeared brighter so you were probably given less teacher attention.

Either that or if you have kids then being a mother will have turned your brain to mush.

Bollocks to that!

My daughter has the blessed grace to share Lynne's birthday and to make sure she wasn't behind we, as her parents, worked with her on reading and writing and creative stuff all before she started school last September.

So despite being the second youngest in the whole school (there is one girl two days younger than her in her class), she is at the top of the class, was (with her best friend) the first to come home with word bags and be reading in the class. She's as bright as a button and has the vocabulary of a much older child. Just because you are one of the younger children in the year shouldn't be an automatic excuse for being behind the rest of the kids!

For those of you who don't know me I should perhaps point out that on paper I don't look like a mouth breather, but I really feel like it!
I have 13 (proper) O levels, 3 A levels, RGN, post grad nursing quals in theatres, a degree in photography, Chartered Management diplomas, project management quals, diplomas in Beauty Therapy, aromatherapy, and I run my own beauty salon.
I do like Sudoko but I'm not sure whether I do them right because I use a process of elimination to work them out (is that how you're supposed to do it?). I used to be amazingly good at mental arithmetic but after my blow out in March 08 I can't add 2 and 4 without a calculator to hand!
As for being born at the end of August it didn't really affect my schooling because I went to private school and took all my exams a year early.
I like Mr Dazzle's idea, and FA, I'll get a puzzle book on my way to the accountant this afternoon.
Cheers all!

Originally Posted by lynne

I'm fed up with being a bit dim to be honest, and really want to stretch my brian. I often think that I'm not terribly quick on the uptake and would like to be rather more insightful.

Being slow on the uptake is more of a common sense thing than intelligence. My missus is the same. 2 degrees to PhD and still one of the dizziest people I know.

As far as I know there are no courses in common sense tho.

as the old saying goes: To be cleaver, Think of something stupid to say... then keep your mouth shut.


IMHO, Puzzles, "In Our Time" radio shows, upmarket mags, etc. are all very well; but I find that the difference really comes with Focus and Concentration.

People make better use of their brains and knowledge when they take their time, think things through, don't get distracted etc.
And the reverse works as well... really quite cleaver people can come across as daft because their minds are all over the place.

Originally Posted by Kyot

as the old saying goes: To be cleaver, Think of something stupid to say... then keep your mouth shut.


IMHO, Puzzles, "In Our Time" radio shows, upmarket mags, etc. are all very well; but I find that the difference really comes with Focus and Concentration.

People make better use of their brains and knowledge when they take their time, think things through, don't get distracted etc.
And the reverse works as well... really quite cleaver people can come across as daft because their minds are all over the place.

I always thought you of you as daft

Originally Posted by Expatat

Hang around with stupid people, you won't get any smarter but it will feel like you have...

Oh - Lynnes always seemed quite bright everytime I've met her

More or less is good though Lynne - you can get it on podcast

Originally Posted by brat

I know loads of people like that - really high IQ but no common sense at all.

Shame there isn't a course for it - I know at least one person I would happily spend a fortune on for them to have a modicum of common sense

As a cleaver chap once said

Originally Posted by Rene Descartes

Common sense is the most fairly distributed thing in the world, for each one thinks he is so well-endowed with it that even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they already have.