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A couple of months ago I watched a movie called limitless and I find it a really amazing one, the story is about an unproductive poor writer who's life is a complete fail and then someone introduces him to a pill that enables him to make the most out of his brain and from there a long story begins where he faces addiction, other addicts fighting against each other to look for more pills to stay successful etc... Its a nice movie I recommend you watch it. Unrealistic story though.

Its stupid to think that such a pill exist or even to think that humans are not already making use of most of their brain areas(it has been proved) so the saying that "we only make use of 5% of our brains" is not valid. But since I watched that movie I started wondering whether there could be ways to train your brain to perform better, analyze faster, learn faster, and concentrate better. Also whether certain foods can help. Definitely this is more expected to be like a lifestyle rather than some magical pill.

Do you think brain training games on a daily basis are effective in empowering brain performance or they're just a waste of time? Have you experienced any?

What I mean here by enhancing brain performance is not about being able to do the simple daily tasks of understanding, calculation and such. But rather being able to pick a new language fast, read books(and understand them faster), better memory where you could remember slight details of things you only read once since a year. Sounds too good to be true but I am not sure if such a thing is achievable.

There are many brain training programs online, a lot of them are paid too. But I think they're a bit stupid or more focused on helping less capable people(such as the elderly) to better go through daily tasks of remembering and calculating.


The graph above models the "forgetting curve". It essentially shows you how likely you are to forget a piece of information with respect to how many days have passed. As you can see, the chance of remembering is drastically improved if the reminders are placed right before you forget. This phenomenon is exploited by a technique called spaced repetition.

This technique will allow you to memorize a huge volume of things with the least possible effort. However, a lot of effort still needs to be put in it, as it requires daily review of a portion of your flashcards that is due for that day. It has great applications in language learning or even programming. If you're feeling adventurous, make sure you read this fairly comprehensive article by gwern.
To answer your question, basically yes.
At the end of the day the brain is a muscle that has its own kind of exercises. How efficient these methods are and how benefitial they are is the question that's up for debate I guess.

Nice contribution Samer.
There is something "magic" that helped me (DISCLAIMER/WARNING: but may not help others, or may kill you) - brainwave sound.
Check about it, there is sets for faster learning.
There is research supporting that the simple game of "N-Back" enhances short term memory. Short term memory is the L1 cache. Bigger is definitely better.
I tried it for a while ago, and there does seem to be a "learning" thing about it. You start off badly, but can enhance a lot with time. Not sure it made me smarter, but I wasn't able to practice it for too long.
nuclearcat wroteThere is something "magic" that helped me (DISCLAIMER/WARNING: but may not help others, or may kill you) - brainwave sound.
Check about it, there is sets for faster learning.
Do you mean binaural beats?
Yes, sorry, binaural beats is correct term.
nuclearcat wroteYes, sorry, binaural beats is correct term.
Ive mostly used them to relax and go to sleep. They help. Never tried them to increase mental activity.
i used to play a game of sudoku here every day on evil mode,noticed getting better in doing mental calculations and some improvements in math.