Breakthrough Moments & Epiphanies in Brain Improvement
The nature of brain development work—and arguably any challenging learning endeavor—is that you’ll do a lot of repetition and deliberate practice. Occasionally you’ll see progress rapidly; most times, it will come very slowly. Inevitably plateaus happen. But sometimes, epiphanies happen as well.
Vestibular Rehabilitation: Improving My Balance to Improve My Brain
My daily routine a few months back was way different from that of anyone I know. There was the usual stuff: brushing teeth, showering, eating breakfast. Then there were some very unorthodox daily exercises I was doing…like walking backward with my eyes closed, while tilting…
Book Review: Sleep Smarter by Shawn Stevenson
Sleep is possibly the most significant component of the journey in getting our brains to work to their fullest, for both ADHD people (who often have sleep problems) and non-ADHD people. So lately I’ve been doing a lot of work on my own sleep quality,…
Books That Can Change Your Life: Learned Optimism
As someone dedicated to improving his brain as a lifelong goal (and also as a nerd at heart), I am someone who reads a lot. Kindle books, audiobooks, tons of blog posts and online articles. Much of what I read is related to learning, technology,…
It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work – Book Review for ADHD Programmers
I just finished the audio version of the new book, It Doesn’t Have to be Crazy at Work, written by the founders of Basecamp, a project management software company. The book intends to encourage businesses to think differently about work in a way that’s far less…
My Recent Brain-Healthy Diet and Self-Control
Poor nutrition is catastrophic for brain health. Sugar, food dyes and other artificial ingredients wreak havoc on attention and cognition – and not to mention your metabolism, contributing to diabetes and other problems (which in turn, mess up your brain as well). Conversely, different dietary…
Intelligence Tests (and Other Brain Tests) and What They Taught Me
For me, one of the most significant epiphany moments in my brain improvement journey was when I got my intelligence tested. For decades I knew I was smart – but some everyday tasks took me so long to do. It just didn’t make sense. Intelligence…
Mind Over Matter: How I Overcame My Learning Disability to Build a Successful Tech Career
This is an article I wrote up in 2016 for the Startup Institute. I realized I never shared it directly with my readers, so shame on me! But others have found it inspiring, and I hope you will too. It was around 2009 that I…
The Three Foundations of A Better Brain: Sleep, Nutrition, Exercise
Here’s something everyone should internalize if you don’t know this already: It doesn’t matter how many brain ‘hacks’ you try. It doesn’t matter how much information you consume on this topic, or how much time you spend listening to podcasts and reading blog posts. It…
My “Brain Hacks and Upgrades” Presentation
Last summer I was super excited to give a talk at QCon New York, a fantastic international software conference. At QCon they give some great in-depth talks about everything tech related, ranging from web development to programming architecture, scaling, management and so on. Last summer…
