Discover his practical strategies for managing information overload, optimizing brain health, and leveraging AI as a tool for enhancing human intelligence and achieving unprecedented success – all while navigating a rapidly-changing world.
Enhancing human intelligence and learning, using AI as an augmentation, not a replacement for our abilities.
The importance of pattern recognition in human intuition for learning and problem-solving
Taking care of brain health (hardware) and adopting effective learning strategies and mindset (software).
AI can be used to personalize learning experiences, optimizing reading speed and comprehension, and providing targeted feedback and recommendations.
Enhancing human intelligence and learning, using AI as an augmentation, not a replacement for our abilities.
The importance of pattern recognition in human intuition for learning and problem-solving
Taking care of brain health (hardware) and adopting effective learning strategies and mindset (software).
AI can be used to personalize learning experiences, optimizing reading speed and comprehension, and providing targeted feedback and recommendations.
Category
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NewsTranscript
00:00 In the half-life of information, it's getting shorter and shorter even.
00:02 I read recently that somebody graduating today and going out into the workforce,
00:09 they could have upwards of eight to ten different careers just because the world is changing so
00:14 rapidly. Welcome to Beyond Unstoppable, the podcast that explores the intersection of biology,
00:20 psychology, and technology. Here is your host, Ben Angel.
00:23 Today, we're fortunate to have Jim Quick, renowned brain coach and author of the new book,
00:29 Limitless, Upgrade Your Brain and Learn Anything Faster and Unlock Your Exceptional Life.
00:36 In this episode, Jim shares his personal perspective on artificial intelligence and
00:40 its potential to enhance human learning while touching on the challenges of keeping up with
00:46 the rapid pace of technology. We explore the impact of AI on information overload and the
00:52 need for upgrading our brains to handle its powerful influence. Jim goes further to discuss
00:59 how AI can augment human abilities, optimize comprehension, and improve memory retention,
01:05 plus much, much more. If you like what you hear, please give us a rating and review. Your support
01:10 means the world to us and helps us reach more listeners. We're ready to become unstoppable.
01:16 This episode is brought to you by Ben Angel's new book, The Wolf Is At The Door,
01:21 How to Survive and Thrive in an AI-Driven World, presented by Entrepreneur. Get an exclusive sneak
01:27 peek and pre-order at thewolfbookhub.com.
01:29 So we've always been very pro-technology. I believe we live in an age of autonomous,
01:35 electric cars, spaceships going to Mars. Often our vehicle of choice when it comes to learning,
01:40 which is my specialty, is often more of a horse and buggy. And so using technology to enhance AI
01:48 is more augmented intelligence. That's kind of the way that I approach AI, where I'm thinking
01:56 about how does AI enhance HI, human intelligence? We recently, I mentioned to you before we started
02:03 recording, brought on a chief AI officer at different parts of the company, integrating AI
02:10 so we could better support our mission, which is building better, brighter brains.
02:15 Our mission is really no brain left behind. And so technology for me is not necessarily good or bad,
02:23 it's just really how we choose to utilize it. Fire is a form of technology and fire could be used to
02:29 cook your food. It could also be used to burn down your home. It's just really how that technology
02:36 and that tool is applied. For us, we're always thinking about learning. When we talk about brain
02:42 optimization and learning and how do we use AI to enhance human learning. And obviously,
02:50 there's an immense amount of potential there. Yeah. What's fascinating is I've been trying to
02:56 find mental frameworks around artificial intelligence to help people get a grasp around
03:05 it. So for you, it's more pulling from the past and potentially even more philosophical approaches.
03:11 Yeah. I mean, I think everything comes down to our mindset in terms of the set of assumptions
03:18 and attitudes we have about something. So we help people to improve their memory, improve their
03:24 focus, their creativity, their reading speed and comprehension. For me, I'm thinking about
03:30 mindset as the set of assumptions and attitudes we have. So if somebody, let's say I teach someone
03:37 a method on how to remember names and faces, and they have the method and the motivation,
03:42 but their mindset is, "Oh, I'm just too old," or "I'm not smart enough," then that's going to
03:47 affect whether or not they apply the methods or to the degree of success they're going to have
03:52 with those methods. I believe in our brain is kind of like a supercomputer of sorts.
03:57 And our thoughts and our beliefs are the program that will run. So if we tell ourself that AI is
04:05 bad or it's threatening, then we're going to have a certain lens of looking through the world.
04:11 Just like if people believe they can't remember names, that's the program your brain will run.
04:17 And so you're probably not going to remember the name of the next person you meet because you
04:21 program a supercomputer not to. And so I think a lot with AI, just like if people have a mindset
04:26 about money, if they think money is the root of all evil, money doesn't grow on trees, they're
04:32 probably going to be a little bit stuck, even if they know what methods or strategies, or even if
04:39 they have access to tools and resources, they're kind of setting that internal thermostat as
04:44 somehow kind of limiting. We talk about becoming limitless and limitless is not about being perfect.
04:49 It's about advancing and progressing beyond what we currently believe is possible. And AI is
04:54 certainly a tool that can help us do exactly that. What I've noticed in the past, maybe eight months
05:00 since researching this topic, do you think learning could potentially become harder due to the rate of
05:08 change that we're experiencing? For me, I've written 70,000 word books in three, four months.
05:14 So generally do them very quickly. What I found challenging about this is the rates at which it's
05:22 pacing. There's something terrifying or something amazing that pops up every single day.
05:28 Yeah, you kind of hear this. We all kind of grew up on this phrase, you have to go where the puck
05:34 is going, right? You skate where the puck is going, not where it is. And with AI, it kind of
05:40 seems like the puck is teleporting everywhere. And it certainly can be frustrating and it's creating,
05:46 even adding more. I talk about in Limitless, some of these phenomenons, the four horsemen of the
05:53 mental apocalypse, if you will, not caused by technology, but certainly it's amplified by
05:57 technology. Things like digital distraction, how do you maintain your focus in a world full of rings
06:03 and pings and dings, app notification, social media alerts, and AI could, if it's not harnessed,
06:09 could be a lot of shiny objects and reinforce our distraction. The one that's interesting to me in
06:16 this conversation is what I call digital deluge, which is this overwhelm that people are feeling
06:22 with information. Even before AI really started, it really was prevalent in our society. People
06:30 were already overloaded. It feels like, as you mentioned, you're drowning in information. It's
06:35 like taking a sip of water out of a fire hose. And now with AI, the amount of information is
06:40 doubling at dizzying speeds. But how we learn that information, how we read it, how we remember it,
06:47 hasn't changed a whole lot. So that growing gap creates an undue amount of stress,
06:51 information anxiety, and it affects our health even. Higher blood pressure, compression of
06:57 leisure time when you're overloaded, it mitigates your sleep and so much more. That affects your
07:05 peace of mind, your performance, your productivity, and certainly your profitability also as well.
07:10 The approach we take is just like the Entrepreneur Magazine that came out a couple years ago. It
07:15 says upgrade your brain. People are watching this on video with a silly guy on the cover holding a
07:20 skull. But I feel like more and more, we have to upgrade our brain to be able to handle the
07:26 immense amount of distraction and overload that AI is causing and presenting to us.
07:32 We hear about technology, we upgrade our phones, we upgrade our computers, we upgrade our apps.
07:38 But when's the last time we took time to upgrade the most important technology
07:42 that has created all other technology, including AI, which is the human mind?
07:46 I love that you actually brought that up because the deeper I dove into the research, I realized
07:53 the more technology is upgrading, the more our brains seem to be downgrading,
07:58 especially after being hit with a pandemic.
08:01 Yeah, the two other horsemen besides digital distraction and digital deluge,
08:06 one of them is digital dementia, which is a term in healthcare that refers to our high
08:12 reliance on technology doing the work for us. So our brain, which is, it's an organ,
08:19 but it acts more like a muscle. It's like use it or lose it. I mean, how many phone numbers did you
08:25 know growing up? Probably most of them, right? You would remember most of them.
08:30 And how many phone numbers currently do you know today? And most people could count on one hand,
08:35 how many phone numbers they could remember currently. They could be texting or calling
08:39 somebody every single day, a friend or family member, a team member. But if they don't have
08:43 their phones with them, or for some reason they lost battery life, then they can't remember.
08:49 And not that I want to memorize 500 phone numbers, but it should be concerning. We've
08:52 lost the ability to remember one, or a pin number or a passcode or a seed phrase or something,
08:57 a conversation that we had. And so that's digital dementia. And the last horseman,
09:03 which is interesting in the context of AI is what I call digital deduction. And that is,
09:11 that was where we're outsourcing our memories to a third party device. It's that third party
09:16 device is doing the thinking for us with, let's say, algorithms. It's even simple ideas. It takes
09:23 getting from here to there. We use a GPS, but we don't have to develop the visual spatial
09:28 intelligence like we used to when we had to read a map or just kind of looking at our environments
09:34 and kind of orient ourselves and have situational awareness. And so it tells us when it's time to
09:40 eat, what it recommends things, their algorithms and social media, whatever you engage with,
09:46 they show you more of, and you can kind of, you don't always see the other perspectives
09:50 or points of views. So again, I love technology when it's utilized for empowering us and educating
09:58 us. But if it's a default and we're relying on it, it's kind of like, like the physicality.
10:04 If you lived on the third floor, your office is on the third floor and you took the lift or the
10:09 elevator every single time, your body wouldn't get that workout. Or if you relied on taking an Uber
10:15 five blocks to go to the bank, when you could have walked it, or there's a physical toll and
10:20 there's a form of atrophy. Like if I put my arm in a sling for a year, it wouldn't grow stronger.
10:26 It wouldn't even stay the same. It would grow weaker. Right? And I feel like our mental muscles
10:32 could grow weaker if we depend on it too much. All forms of technology, whether it's an elevator,
10:38 whether it's a car, whether it's your smart device or even AI. My question is how do we
10:45 utilize AI again to enhance our HI, our human intelligence? So now we coach, we create programs
10:53 now to help people integrate AI with their personalized learning to help them become
10:58 better readers, to help them to be able to remember things better that they need for their
11:04 schoolwork or for their career. Do you think our brains are still
11:09 atrophied after the pandemic? One thing I'm noticing with a lot of 20 year olds around where
11:16 I live here in Florida is that their inability to focus is astounding to me. I mean, I grew up in
11:24 the nineties. We didn't have smartphones. I'm going to make myself sound old now, but I am so
11:30 relieved that I didn't grow up with that because I have a recollection of what it feels like to
11:36 sustain focus without distraction. Yeah. What are we meant to do with this generation that is
11:45 drinking from a fire hose and that fire hose is about to become a tsunami?
11:50 Yes. Yeah. And that's really a magic question. It's very, very timely and timeless because all
11:58 these issues of deluge, distraction, digital dementia, digital deduction is just going to
12:04 grow worse, you know, as technology progresses and starts almost running our different aspects
12:11 of our lives. So for me, technology is a tool for us to use, but if we're just picking up our
12:16 devices all the time, just out of habit or boredom, then the technology uses us and then we
12:22 become the tool and that's not the goal. So our message has always been about agency. It's about
12:27 sovereignty, about reminding everybody that they are personally responsible for their lives and
12:34 little things can make a big difference. There's a quote in my book, Limitless, which we recently
12:40 updated for a post-pandemic world. We have this whole chapter on AI, dealing with this and the
12:45 science and momentum and how AI can help create momentum in your learning and also in your life.
12:51 But the quote is, "Life is the letter C between the letter B and D." Life is C between B and D.
12:58 B stands for birth, D stands for death, life, C, choice. Our lives are the sum total of all
13:05 the choices we've made up to this point in time. What are we going to eat? What are we going to
13:10 feed our mind? Who are we going to spend time with? Where are we going to live? What are we
13:13 going to do as a career? All those things. And those little things add up to big things.
13:18 And I truly believe when it comes to choice that these difficult times, they can distract us. These
13:22 difficult times can diminish us or these difficult times, they could develop us. We ultimately decide
13:30 when I really think it starts with not so much time management, certainly AI, we're integrating
13:36 different roles in our company for everything from customer experience to creative, to looking
13:43 at everything through the lens of education. How do we also at the same time, not let our brains go
13:50 lax because you always want to be flexing those mental muscles. Kids today or this generation
13:58 that grew up, I'm 50 years old. So I remember what it was like to not have the internet,
14:02 not having a phone until later in life. And I cherish it. Certainly when I see children and
14:10 I teach at a lot of schools and they have all these devices and they grew up with joysticks
14:14 and they grew up swiping. The human brain hasn't evolved a whole lot over the past couple of
14:19 hundred years or even a couple of thousands or tens of thousands or a hundred thousand years.
14:23 The organ is pretty much the same, but the stimulus is certainly changed. And when you're
14:29 looking at your phone, let's say first thing in the morning, I have a video of millions of views
14:35 of just saying, don't touch your phone the first half an hour of the day, because it could rewire
14:39 your brain for distraction. It could rewire your brain for reaction, but you're scrolling through
14:44 and this generation that grows up on it, it's tough because there's so much context switching.
14:50 If you have access to the world's information, we have more information in our pocket than
14:56 even president Clinton had when he was in office. How do you reconcile that? My heart goes to
15:04 teachers. My mother became a school teacher to help me with my learning difficulties that I had
15:09 when I had a traumatic brain injury when I was a child. And it's tough. How do you manage a class
15:15 when these kids are used to information flying at them from every single direction and they're
15:20 swiping and they have all this access and they have all these shiny objects right in their pocket.
15:26 And so it's certainly a challenge. And I really do believe it starts with ownership. Having this,
15:33 as Jaco Willings talked about, this extreme ownership about you are the pilot of your life.
15:38 You're not the passenger. You're the pilot of your mind. You're not the passenger. And it doesn't,
15:43 we don't have to be victims of this. We can control the controllables, which happen to be
15:49 our mindset around things, our motivation around things and the methods that we choose to use.
15:54 And also incorporating these technologies into our life. And at the same time, while there's
16:00 technologies, we could still go to the gym. Right now, nobody probably who's listening to this right
16:05 now, my fellow entrepreneurs, you're not probably paid like you were a couple hundred years ago.
16:11 People were paid for their brute strength. Today, it's you're compensated for your brain strength.
16:16 It's not your muscle power that's as important as your mind power. And so I feel like every day we
16:22 have to be developing our mind and our muscles to be the best version of ourselves. So we could not
16:27 only survive in these times, but really start to thrive. In some respect, do you think that we're
16:35 competing against something that we can't keep up with? Considering AI is adaptive, it's awake 24/7,
16:44 it's continuously learning and applying. Do you think there's an aspect that we need to maybe
16:51 reconcile with and just recognize that, okay, it is impossible to keep up with this thing.
16:57 I'm going to have to pivot somewhere else. I think it's having sensory acuity and
17:03 situational awareness moment by moment, day by day is important as new technologies emerge.
17:09 You think about the technologies we currently use, whether it's email or Slack or the internet,
17:16 when it comes to information, we choose to use it because it makes our life more convenient.
17:22 My goal is just while technology is convenient, it's convenient to take an Uber to go five blocks,
17:28 but we don't want it to be crippling. And so for me, I haven't given up on human beings.
17:34 I feel like AI could help us to be more curious. It enhances our, not only our curiosity,
17:41 but also our creativity. I still like to write and do my own presentations, but AI can be a
17:48 wonderful resource to help structure ideas, to help you to do research. But I also still
17:54 employ our speed reading skills, our memory skills, our focus skills, because I feel like
18:00 it could give us an edge. And I don't think AI is going to so much, and we've heard this a lot,
18:05 so it's not original thinking, but it's worth mentioning. I don't think AI is necessarily
18:11 going to replace human beings, but people who use AI, obviously, versus people who don't have a huge
18:17 advantage and access to an incredible superpower. So it's pretty inevitable. It's out of the box.
18:23 It's not going back inside the box, and it's constantly going to evolve as technology does.
18:28 It's going to be faster and more encompassing, more accurate. And I think we have so much latent
18:36 potential in the human brain. When we're thinking about these 86 billion brain cells, these neurons,
18:43 each with potentially thousands of dendrites and synaptic connections, there are more connections
18:50 that we can make with our brain than there are stars in the universe. And so while we can
18:55 acknowledge that AI is here, and it will constantly evolve, I also believe that we have so much
19:00 potential within us that could also evolve. And AI could be supportive of that also as well.
19:05 >> One thing I've noticed with artificial intelligence is, in essence, it's mimicking
19:11 human intuition. Human intuition is, you'll be able to explain more on this than I can,
19:19 but it's essentially pattern recognition. So AI collects all of this data, looks at the patterns,
19:26 and then makes the predictions on what text to come up next. Do you think we are lacking
19:32 in human intuition right now because we are so distracted? And is intuition a key part in this
19:40 rapid learning process to make those connections and to have those moments of illumination where
19:46 it kind of clicks and falls into place? >> Before we continue, Beyond Unstoppable
19:51 is brought to you by Ben Angel's new book, The Wolf is at the Door, How to Survive and Thrive
19:57 in an AI-Driven World. Get your exclusive sneak peek and pre-order at thewolfbookhub.com.
20:03 Now, back to the show. >> Yeah, we talk in our programs online,
20:08 and we have students in every country in the world, so we get a lot of feedback. I mean,
20:11 pattern recognition is core for genius. I mean, genius really is all about pattern recognition.
20:17 If somebody's a genius in wealth, they've amassed an enormous amount of wealth, they'd see things,
20:23 the patterns that other people don't see. If somebody is extremely healthy or they have great
20:28 relationships, they're consciously or unconsciously picking up on patterns, and they're
20:32 acting on those patterns also as well. I also think we could generate these patterns with the
20:37 help also of AI when we're doing our research to be able to personalize, let's say, our reading,
20:43 our memory, our focus. But genius leaves clues, and so certainly pattern recognition is a big
20:49 part of that. That's one of the reasons why I think everybody should be reading every single
20:55 day, because if somebody has decades of experience like you do, and you put that knowledge and
20:59 experience and wisdom into a book, which you've done, and somebody could sit down and read that
21:04 book in a few days, then they could download decades of insights in a matter of days.
21:09 And I also think reading is so important, not only for the knowledge and wisdom
21:13 that we gleam, but it's also a great form of mental exercise. Reading is to your mind what
21:19 exercise is to your body. But utilizing AI to help sort for patterns and trends in all the
21:27 research that's out there, I don't personally want to spend an enormous amount of time reading,
21:33 even though I do a lot of it, all the white papers on neuroscience and psychology and all
21:38 these studies. And I try to take that neuroscience approach to education and accelerated learning and
21:44 brain optimization. And it could save me a lot of time, and that time can be spent in other
21:49 creative endeavors also as well. I really do believe the future belongs to the creators.
21:54 And while we're concerned that our jobs are being outsourced or they're being automated,
22:00 obviously AI has a huge presence in that and contributes to that also as well,
22:04 that we could see what we're good at, what makes these things that make us innately human,
22:10 and see how technology in all its forms, including AI, could help enhance our own humanity.
22:16 >> How do we put a learning framework around something that is moving at the pace that it is?
22:27 >> Yeah, I mean, traditionally, even when we do a reading program and we have students,
22:34 we will at a base triple their reading speed with far better comprehension, focus, retention. So I
22:40 have a set of schema or experiences that says that we're greatly under-utilizing that kind
22:46 of potential. That being said, utilizing AI for let's say reading, because my functional approach
22:53 towards AI is really around how do you use it to enhance your own empowerment and be more empowered
22:59 and be more educated. So for example, for reading, AI has incredible power to personalize your
23:05 reading experience, as an example. With AI, it's possible to have, I don't know, things like smart
23:11 recommendation systems that take into account your specific interests, your reading habits,
23:17 it could take into account your skill level to suggest books that are most relevant and engaging
23:22 to you. And this ensures that you're not just reading more, but reading what truly, truly
23:28 matters for you. AI could also help to optimize your reading speed and reading comprehension.
23:33 We have a quick bot, if you will, it's kind of like an AI version of myself, where our students
23:40 could ask AI questions and the AI has been primed with all our course materials and hundreds of
23:46 podcasts, interviews, the research, our books, everything. So it comes up with answers that are
23:53 absolutely remarkable. So we utilize that in our memory programs and our focus programs and our
23:58 reading. But AI, we could analyze your reading speed with AI, you could analyze your comprehension
24:04 levels, you could adapt reading material for your specific needs. So for instance, if you're a fast
24:10 reader, but you struggle with retention, AI can adjust the text to include more recall and
24:16 comprehension exercises. So you could become a better reader with AI, it could help you do all
24:22 that. Imagine having an AI reading bot like we have that identifies your strengths or weaknesses,
24:29 provides constructive feedback, sets personalized goals for you, it could point out patterns,
24:35 you're talking about pattern recognitions that we might not notice as we're reading,
24:39 like the frequency of misunderstood words or concepts, and suggest targeted exercises
24:46 to be able to overcome those problems and those challenges. When it comes to our retention of
24:51 things, AI is a complete game changer. AI could help create smart summaries of books. The other
24:57 day, one of my podcast guests, they said they shipped out a book, but I didn't get it in time
25:03 to read and I like to read all the books before I get it. But it's able to give me a summary of
25:10 the book that I could read in especially because I read pretty fast in minutes, it could highlight
25:16 key points of a book, it could present questions that are thoughtful that haven't been asked
25:21 of this author before. It can give me concepts to review, and it can give me space repetition
25:28 and present this information and take all the principles that we teach, interval training,
25:33 space review, retrieval practice, AI can remind you to revisit these concepts at optimal intervals,
25:40 which could greatly improve your own long-term memory of the material to more quickly become
25:47 an expert. And then while AI could be a very powerful tool, and we use it in so many different
25:52 ways, it's just that I just want to remind people it is a tool. It's a very powerful tool,
25:58 it could provide personal recommendations, targeted feedback, all the stuff we talk about,
26:02 smart summaries, but the act of reading, the joy of immersing yourself in content, information in
26:08 a book, the satisfaction that comes from understanding a complex concept. You could
26:14 take a concept like neurogenesis or neuroplasticity and you could feed it into AI and say, "Explain
26:20 this to me as if I'm eight years old." And it can greatly accelerate our learning and enhance our
26:26 own human experience. I gotta say it is phenomenal for legal contracts. Yes. Lawyers, I mean,
26:35 you're going to see a lot of application and we have a lot of attorneys as clients and medical
26:42 doctors and financial advisors. I mean, it's disrupting every industry for sure. Yeah,
26:48 I've got to say we've already partially replaced an attorney, partially replaced even a veterinarian.
26:55 And what's fascinating is that rescue dog Mitch, he was having digestive issues. We'd spent over
27:03 a thousand dollars on different vets, couldn't work it out. I took the blood work and put it
27:08 into the AI to create a hypothetical scenario and it literally solved the issue. And what I found
27:16 both exciting and shocking at the same time is that no industry is untouched. For me, it's looking
27:25 at the veterinarians that they didn't necessarily have the same pattern recognition that the AI did.
27:34 Yeah. Who has the time to read all the research, the latest research and the half-life information?
27:40 It's getting shorter and shorter. Even I read recently that somebody graduating today,
27:46 been going out into the workforce, they could have upwards of eight to 10 different careers
27:51 just because the world is changing so rapidly. Not jobs, but different careers. And so,
27:57 just like you mentioned, AI's effect on money, on medicine. But I think the goal here is not to rely
28:05 on AI, but to use it as an augmentation tool. That's why I feel like it augments us to expand
28:12 our brain's existing power and potential. How do we upgrade our brain to manage this change?
28:21 Obviously, during the pandemic, we saw a lot of individuals struggling with either depression
28:27 or lack of focus. They were completely inundated with information, but effectively a lot of
28:34 fast-moving change. How do we, I guess, upgrade our brain and maybe even still undo some of the
28:42 damage that we were still in the shadows of? Yeah. We've done multiple podcast episodes on
28:48 COVID brain by people struggling with, after the pandemic, with brain fog,
28:54 a compromised memory, with losing various senses. But the recommendations, and I'm not a medical
28:59 doctor, but we've had a lot of medical doctors and PhDs on our show. I look at it as two different
29:07 pieces. There's the hardware and there's the software. Meaning, software is the things we
29:14 teach. This is how you read faster. This is how you understand more of what you're reading. This
29:18 is how you retain what you read. This is how you focus better. This is how you learn languages.
29:23 This is a faster way to memorize people's names or give a speech without notes. That's the software.
29:31 So we have that content, and 95% of what we publish is free. You just have to look on YouTube or
29:37 podcasts. I think that's wonderful right now that we have unfeathered access to the wisdom
29:43 of the world. But then also, you have to take into account, besides the software, the hardware.
29:49 That's really brain optimization. One of the ways to upgrade your brain is really taking care of
29:55 that hardware. They say its potential and its performance, about a third of it is predetermined
30:03 by genetics, biology, but two-thirds is in our direct control with our lifestyle. While our work
30:12 Limitless is endorsed by the founding director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Brain Health,
30:17 by the top Alzheimer's research, Dr. Rudy Tanzi out of Harvard University, we know that about
30:24 one-third is about genetic and biological, but two-thirds is in our control. There are 10 factors
30:29 that really move the needle when it comes to the hardware of our brain, to have a limitless brain.
30:35 In no particular order, I could go through them very fast. They're pretty common sense,
30:38 but they're not always common practice. AI is not going to help a whole lot if you're just
30:43 sleep-deprived and your focus is everywhere. You have to be in a good state, a learning state.
30:48 And people could take notes, we could turn this into a little masterclass. What I would suggest
30:56 is people just rate themselves on a scale of 0 to 10, how much energy and effort and time and
31:01 tension are you putting towards these areas. Good brain diet, let's start there. The whole
31:06 area of science, we have two chapters of the book dedicated to neuro-nutrition,
31:11 and that your brain is only 2% of your body mass, but it requires 20% of the nutrients.
31:16 And so your brain needs certain nutrients that are critical for optimal performance. And there's
31:22 certain foods that are dense in those neuro-protective substances. So you would say
31:28 things like avocados and blueberries, I like to call them brain berries. Broccoli is good for the
31:33 brain. Olive oil. If your diet allows eggs, the choline in eggs is good for cognitive health and
31:39 performance. Green leafy vegetables like kale and spinach. If your diet allows also wild salmon and
31:45 sardines, your brain is mostly fat and getting those omega-3s is very important for brain function
31:50 and brain health. Things like turmeric, the curcumin helps to lower inflammation, which could
31:57 cause issues in the brain. Walnuts are a great brain snack and high in vitamin E, very neuro-protective.
32:04 Dark chocolate is good for the brain. And so there are foods we can incorporate. Because on the other
32:09 side, if you're eating a lot of processed, refined foods, high in sugar, our brains aren't going to
32:14 be optimized to be able to handle all of the fast-paced information and the influx that comes
32:20 from technology. The second thing I would say is just controlling our inner thoughts. Killing ants,
32:26 as Dr. Daniel Amen, the brain doctor, talks about. Ant stands for automatic negative thoughts.
32:32 We talked about this. Your brain is like a supercomputer and your self-talk is a program
32:36 it'll run. So if you tell yourself you're not good at AI or not good at remembering names,
32:40 you probably won't remember the name of the next person you meet because you programmed
32:43 your supercomputer not to. At a lot of events, I'll do demonstrations where I'll memorize
32:49 50 people's names in an audience or 100 random words or 100 random numbers.
32:54 But I tell people, I don't do this to impress you. I do this to express to you what's possible.
32:57 Because the truth is, everybody here could do that regardless of your age or background,
33:02 your career, education level, financial situation, gender, history, IQ. We all could do that.
33:06 We just weren't taught. And so our goal is to fill in those learning gaps. But a lot at these events,
33:11 people will often come to me and say, "Jim, I'm just too old. I have a horrible memory.
33:16 I can't handle AI," whatever. I always say, "Stop." If you fight for your limitations,
33:21 you get to keep them. So many people are used to fighting for what they can't do.
33:26 That becomes part of their identity. And so even adding a simple word like "yet" at the end of a
33:31 sentence, if you find yourself saying something disempowering like, "I just can't understand AI,"
33:37 and then you just add a little word like "yet" at the end because it opens up the
33:41 possibility and the potential. A third thing I would recommend everybody here is exercise.
33:47 I've mentioned it a couple of times, but as your body moves, your brain grooves.
33:51 So if you're downloading all this information, it actually helps you to learn this information
33:56 if you're moving your body. If you're on a treadmill, if you're doing a brisk walk,
34:00 you're using some kind of AI, some kind of audio where they're speaking to you,
34:04 you can actually understand it and retain it better. Because when you move your body,
34:08 you create brain-derived neurotropic factors, BDNF, which is like fertilizer for neuroplasticity.
34:14 And neuroplasticity is this neurological phenomenon where our brain has this remarkable ability
34:21 to adapt and change depending on the stimulus we give it, just like when you work out. You give it
34:26 some novelty, you give it some nutrition, and then it can grow. Same thing with our mental muscles.
34:32 And so I don't just mean doing CrossFit three times a week or Pilates a couple times, but I mean
34:38 like throughout the day, just moving our body, taking little brain breaks because AI can be very
34:43 overwhelming. Looking at screens, our visual health, visual fatigue can lead to mental fatigue.
34:48 So taking a break every 30 or 45 minutes to just go for a five-minute walk, get some fresh air,
34:55 clean out the cobwebs, come back refreshed, hydrate yourself because just staying hydrated
34:59 will boost your reaction time, your thinking speed upwards of 30%. And that's a huge lift.
35:04 It makes things so much easier. The fourth area, which we dedicated a whole chapter on,
35:09 is neuronutrition, which are supplements, nootropics, certain supplements. And again,
35:15 talk to your functional medicine doctor, have a nutrient profile done. But if you're lacking
35:19 even simple things like omega-3s, I mentioned your B vitamins, which are your brain vitamins.
35:24 If you're low in vitamin D, it could definitely compromise our ability to think, to focus,
35:30 to be able to remember. So we put some of my favorite nootropics in there to help you get
35:37 a little bit of an edge to catch up, keep up, and also get ahead while we're working.
35:42 Number five is a positive peer group. And we know this, that it's not just your neurological
35:47 networks, it's your social networks. Because who you spend time with is who we become.
35:52 So are you spending time with people that are educating you, that are challenging you,
35:56 communities, people that are really obsessed about a certain subject like AI? Because we have
36:02 something in our nervous system called mirror neurons. We're imitating, just like a mirror
36:07 imitates you, we're constantly imitating the people around us. So we start adopting the words,
36:12 the actions, the thoughts, the character, the habits of the people we spend the most time with.
36:17 They say we're the average of the five people we spend the most time with. But if you want to
36:21 upgrade your brain in a certain area, let's say artificial intelligence, are we in communities
36:26 where they're having those thoughtful conversations? And are you part of that discussion,
36:30 learning and contributing? So zero to 10 positive peer group is so very important,
36:36 because it often takes a village because learning is not always solo, it's social,
36:40 getting feedback, having accountability, we all need people to encourage us to cheerlead for us.
36:45 Six is a big one, a clean environment, meaning two different areas. The air we breathe is so
36:52 very important. But lots of times we've done multiple podcasts about air quality,
36:57 and maybe the neurotoxins that the chemicals they put in carpets or furniture,
37:03 you have access to our air purifier to cleanse the air so it has cleaner oxygen, so that way we
37:09 don't have that brain fog or having reactions to things in the environment or things like whether
37:14 it's your air, maybe it's in your water. So these toxins can be in different chemicals can be in
37:20 different areas and over time can definitely have an effect on our mental performance. But I was
37:24 not just clean environment from potential toxins or neuro disruptors, but also,
37:30 you make your bed today, I just cleaned my desk before this conversation. And I have just your
37:36 external world is a reflection of your internal world, right? Even on your screen, do you have
37:40 like a million files open? Or do you have things organized? And once you organize your external
37:45 world, you tend to organize your internal world. And AI is very powerful for that also. It's helped
37:49 me to organize my next book that's coming out. We have three books coming out one a year for the
37:56 next three years. It helps to pull all of that and synthesize it. And I don't always agree with
38:01 everything it outputs, but I could refine it and it creates a nice structure and baseline
38:06 for better learning. And then finally, 7, 8, 9, 10, 7 is sleep. And sleep is so very important.
38:14 I think it's one of the first principles for performance is getting a good night's sleep.
38:18 But if you're not sleeping, well, how's your ability to analyze what AI produces? How's your
38:22 ability to read all that content? If you're tired or you had a food coma, because going back to diet,
38:27 you had a lot of big processed meal and you're suffering from some kind of mental fatigue,
38:31 how's your ability to remember things? And so getting a good night's sleep. And so we write a
38:37 whole chapter in Limitless on how to optimize your sleep, where we interviewed the top sleep
38:41 experts globally. And little things like getting sunlight first thing in the morning to help reset
38:46 your circadian rhythm, to help you sleep better at night, not having caffeine past 2 PM, because
38:52 for some people who are sensitive with caffeine, it could stay in your system for 8 to 10 hours.
38:57 Some people could have expresso at night. I'm not one of those people. Or staying and having an
39:03 alarm as most people do to wake up. I think it's more important to have an alarm to go to sleep,
39:07 because especially on the weekends, because your brain loves consistency, it loves structure,
39:13 it loves staying on schedule. And my two favorite ones are just lower temperature and lower light.
39:20 Because think about hunter-gatherers before there was AI. We would know it was time to go to sleep
39:26 because it would get darker and it would get colder. But nowadays with modern conveniences,
39:33 and again, that's a form of technology. And I love that I have a thermostat and I can regulate the
39:37 temperature and the lighting at any given time. But also you want it cooler in your bedroom to
39:43 help you sleep. You want it darker in your bedroom to help you sleep. And even technology is really
39:49 great. But if you're on your phone late at night, the light that comes from your devices fools your
39:54 mind into thinking it's still daylight. So you don't create that melatonin to help you to be
39:58 able to relax. So there's so many different factors. There's not just one thing that could
40:03 affect your sleep. Number eight is protect your brain. We do a lot of podcasts on brain protection,
40:10 on EMF fields, electromagnetic fields, and Wi-Fi. Some people are more sensitive to that.
40:17 Protecting your brain simply by wearing a helmet. Are your kids wearing helmets when they're doing
40:22 sports? And having had a traumatic brain injury and working with athletes that have TBIs or
40:27 concussions, your brain is very resilient, but it's also very fragile. So protect your brain.
40:32 And then finally, nine and 10, nine is new learnings, which I'm preaching to the choir
40:36 because anyone reading this or listening to this, they are always learning. But again,
40:41 and it also helps you live longer, by the way. There was a study done on longevity
40:46 where this community of nuns were living 80, 90 and above, and research scientists wanted to find
40:51 out what was the key. And they found, because they all had the same kind of lifestyle, and half of
40:56 it had to do with their emotional faith and their gratitude, but the other half, they were lifelong
41:00 learners. They're reading every day, having deep conversations every day. And because of it,
41:04 it added years to their life. But not only that, it added life to their years also as well.
41:10 It was featured on the cover of Time Magazine. I don't know if people saw it, but it was a study
41:14 called Aging with Grace, which I think is a beautiful title for a research study.
41:18 And then finally, number 10, and this is a big thing that's actually, we have to be very
41:23 cognizant of when it comes to AI and technology, is stress management. We mentioned that the amount
41:30 of information is doubling at dizzying speeds, and we feel like we're drowning in that information.
41:34 So what are you doing to mitigate, besides upgrading your learning abilities, reading
41:39 faster, remembering, understanding better, focusing better, what are you doing to cope with stress?
41:44 My go-to is I meditate every single day for 20 minutes, but I feel like it's so important
41:50 in a world where we're so strapped, our phone's always within reaching distance. I feel like it's
41:56 so important to disconnect, to reconnect. Just like if a piece of technology isn't working,
42:01 one of the first things we often do is unplug it, and then we plug it back in and it just works.
42:07 I feel like sometimes we have to unplug. I think a lot of people, whether it's ADD,
42:12 attention deficit disorder, I think people suffer from a nature deficit disorder.
42:16 Just getting back out into nature and getting grounded and walking barefoot and getting fresh
42:22 air and sunlight is so important for our nervous system to thrive. And so how are we coping with
42:30 stress, especially stress that comes from technology? So are you doing a dopamine
42:35 detox or a digital detox? On the weekends, my family, we take 12 hours and we just don't go
42:41 on our phones. And that's not for everybody, without a doubt. But I feel remarkably refreshed
42:47 and creative when I find I do have a little space. Are the kids also calmer?
42:52 Yeah, children, it's interesting. And then this is anecdotal, but we also work with a lot of kids
42:59 too. And I teach a lot in public schools and university levels and lecture, guest lecture
43:04 there. The technology, people tend, I mean, you just look at any numbers. You look at the rise of
43:11 certain conditions, whether it's ADD, whether it's hyperactivity, whether it's depression,
43:16 anger, mental health issues, is it epidemic? The fifth, I would say maybe if there was a fifth
43:22 horseman of the mental apocalypse besides digital deduction, digital dementia, digital deluge,
43:27 I would say digital depression. Kids growing up comparing themselves to the highlight trailer
43:33 of all their friends that they post on social media. And the truth is, if you're green with envy,
43:39 often it's the grass is greener where we water it. And often it's greener on Instagram because
43:46 of the filter your friend is using, or it's greener because there's a lot of artificial
43:50 turf out there. And when we compare ourselves to other people, we're fueled by other people's
43:55 opinions and other people's expectations. Then we're going to run out of gas for sure.
44:01 And when naturally we live in this comparison culture, and I would just say that everything
44:06 in moderation, just like water is really good for you, but if you drink too much water, you drown.
44:12 So everything doing it using common sense and a sense of accountability, I think is very important.
44:18 Jim, thank you so much for your time. You always have amazing stories and I always love the
44:25 information that you share. Congratulations on your new book. I really appreciate our conversations.
44:31 I really truly believe that there's an independent of technology. I believe there's a version of
44:36 ourself that we haven't met yet. And I think the goal is we show up every single day for ourself
44:41 until we're introduced to that person. Learn more about Jim quick@jimquick.com.
44:47 And if you haven't already, subscribe to beyond unstoppable and visit the wolfbookhub.com for
44:52 your exclusive sneak peek of the wolf is at the door and stay tuned for next week's episode.