INTRODUCING MEMORY

I am not a great reader of classics . .

I mostly read factual texts the business pages ,investment books , education psychology and when I need to books on computing and coding . If I am not internalizing actionable information , learning or refining some new skills then I tended to feel I was wasting my  time . These days I am more relaxed .  I see the value in  widening the margins , inspiration comes from juxtaposition .

Anyway a few years ago aware that my education was not as rounded as it could  be .  I set some time aside to read the Dickens classic A Tale Of Two Cities I struggled with that book ,I picked it up and put it down so many times . I had other things to do .

The problem was it was just so slow , so dull . On about the 5th attempt , 100 or so pages in [it seemed like a 1000] things changed . Where London had been painted in shades of grey . Paris during the revolution was vividly painted . The second half of the book was fast paced , chaotic , unstable and it flew by , revolutions are many things but they are never boring

Reflecting back it occurs to me that ‘ a tale of two cities ‘ is a excellent metaphor for how smart drugs and smart approaches seek to solve the same problem of ATTENTION .

Reading that book left a lasting synesthetic imprint . If you not familiar with Synaesthesia . it is a condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another. When hearing a sound produces the visualization of a colour for instance .

In this metaphor smart drugs  are like blinkers , you have a job to do and smart drugs help you to knuckle down and do it .

Smart approaches  on the other hand help you to widen the margins by altering content into something the brain finds more stimulating more engaging  .Smart approaches direct focus . No matter how dull you find the the subject matter, the process of learning can always be engaging and challenging .