Regarding doing stuff yourself, I would put artisanry in the same category. Both learning a variety of basic crafts and mastering a particular one. Perhaps the 80-20 rule could be applied here.

@Tom – I wouldn’t draw the conclusion from being in the moment is good, ergo introspection is always bad. To question one-self and one’s actions, that’s where wisdom starts, right? When introspection leads to analysis-paralysis and therefore passivity, that’s where I agree that it’s a bad thing.

Life is awesome when we don’t think but just do. If you’re practicing being in the moment, or being ‘mindful’ (whatever you want to call it), you’re already ahead of 90% of the people who just wander the earth reacting to external stimuli yet thinking they are in control of their life.

Most people would be shocked at how much of their life they’re wasting if they’d just regularly ask the question ‘Is this thing I’m doing right now actually contributing to something worthwhile in my life?’ (idleness fits into this description, mind you)

Ofcourse they’d play it off with some mayor cognitive dissonance removal tactic like ‘Okay, well tonight I might be watching TV all night, but tomorrow I’ll do something productive’. Which of course turns into an endless loop until they’re 75 and crippled, living in a foster home unable to go to the toilet by themselves and looking back at their life with regret.

This post is starting to become a bit long, but I just want to back up what Joseph said. It’s really awesome and undervalued to learn how to fix stuff. If I take a look at my friends for example, they’re all so theoretically gifted (finance, law, marketing, etc.) but some of them literally can’t replace a light bulb. (no joke).

I can’t say anything about meditation, because unlike this list, I have not tried it out for myself. I am a big fan of being in-the-moment though, like the Stoics and the Zen masters, whatever you do.

There are two things I would like to add:
- Solving the little problems in your daily life yourself.
That can mean anything, in example your drainage is blocked or you have a computer problem, or your socks got a hole. All problems you can solve yourself and in the process you will get smarter (whatever that means…)

- Do things yourself
There are numerous crafts and learning the entry level of the most basic crafts like backing, cooking, sewing, carving, carpentering, forging, gardening, making fire, masoning etc. will provide you with new practical skills and makeyou smarter, because they all involve abstract thinking, imagination and your ability to adapt to new situations.

What do you think?

Joseph

For instance, writing by hand doesn’t make you smarter if it is not done mindfully. Writing by hand is a tactic to become mindful of what your doing, thus improving your concentration / continuous mindful capacity and thus making you ‘smarter’. That’s why meditation (relaxation, concentration, and/or insight) should be part of everyone’s routine.

That doesn’t mean Pali chanting, but it can be something as simple as staring outside of a window observing your own thoughts.