I've seen a lot of posts over the years talk about improving the mind, and they basically offer a few steps. On the surface, they appear sound, but I think they lack the extra depth someone who truly wants to improve their mind desires. Therefore, I have decided to talk to you about a book and a chapter that helped me improve my thinking. This information turned me from an incoherent thinker who could barely keep a thought going for 10 minutes, into someone who enjoys thinking about single topics for extended periods of time.

Both of the reading assignments are available for free at Google Books.

The first book, "Thinking as a Science" is by Henry Hazlitt.

The second reading is the chapter "The Art of Thinking" from the book "Wisdom of Henry Hazlitt."

The first book was written when Hazlitt was 21, and the chapter is when he was an old man, and it serves as an epilogue with suggestions if he had to rewrite the book all over again. Even though the first book was written by a young Hazlitt, it is still very impressive and will help turn you into a serious thinker. I reread the chapter last night and it reminded me how serious you have to take your mind improvement. Reading is not enough to grow and expand your mind. You have to study what you read, and what you are going to read are seriously challenging books. Books on science, philosophy, logic, and mathematics.

Look, you can read the Great Books and find them interesting and stimulating. You may even grow your vocabulary and be able to relate to a lot of cultural information, but, you won't really improve your thinking abilities. To really adapt your mind to stronger problem-solving and concentration, you have to tackle topics that are difficult. Topics that require rereading and rereading, studying and memorizing and practice. How else do you think you can get smarter? No, you can't improve your IQ, but that doesn't mean you are doomed to a lifetime of sloppy thinking and reasoning. If your reading assignments look like work, then you are on the right path.

Honestly, it will take hard work to improve your mind, and you have to ask yourself why you want to improve your mind. You can't just say to yourself, "well, I'll read a lot and I'll get super smart." I already tried that method, and although you gain a breadth of superficial knowledge, you gain no increase in your ability to think. To expand and strengthen your mind you have to challenge it with serious books on thinking. This means math, logic, science, and philosophy. Hazlitt gives plenty of recommendations, and I advise you go into it knowing it may take you months or years to read through and study one of these books.

Improving your mind is often analogized with exercise. Reading a span of easy books is going to do nothing for you in the same way going to the gym and working out lightly on random machines will do nothing. It may do something, but nothing compared to your idea of what it should do for you. You take the gym seriously because you know what outcome you want. You should also read seriously because you know what outcome you want.

What outcome do you want? Do you want to be able to solve difficult problems? Do you want to clarify your thinking into more coherent and logical statements? Do you want to avoid falling into others' intellectual traps? Do you want to sharpen your powers of observation?

Only you can decide what is your real purpose for improving your mind. It cannot be done as an afterthought. Once you go forward you cannot go back, you will see how foolish most people are and your view of the world will change.

Therefore, I challenge you to read this book and chapter and ponder the information Hazlitt provides. It has helped me go from a shitty thinker into a somewhat competent one, although I know I still have a long ways to go in order to take my thinking to the next level.

1st https://books.google.ca/books?id=wwtD5dg1fKkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:ayMYTuSS1U8C&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

2nd https://books.google.ca/books?id=Fg17rGu02OsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+wisdom+of+henry+hazlitt&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=the%20wisdom%20of%20henry%20hazlitt&f=false