Generally speaking, the western countries (USA, Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand) are proud to be dumb. There is a culture of anti-intellectualism, where people watch junk TV shows and read junk books. If you look at the highest rated TV show, it’s “America Got Talent” and the best selling books are smut fiction (50 Shades of Grey) or young adult literature like Hunger Games or Harry Potter.

“It’s watch Game of Thrones tonight! Netflix and chill.”

“Bruh, you wanna go watch football and drink beer?”

One adult to another: “Have you read the newest Harry Potter book?”

This isn’t to rant and rave about dumb people – it’s already established that it’s human nature to put in the least amount of effort. Let’s not fall into the trap and get ahead in life by becoming smarter.

Being smarter – with the will to get things done – will get you far in life.

Every day, I study about 2-3 hours. I do not have a college education.

Right now, I’m studying how to trade in the cryto-currency market, how to become a better poker player and I read books on philosophy, science, finance, economics, psychology, political science and history.

First step – get yourself an e-reader

An e-reader will run you anyhere between $30 to $120. I recommend a kobo e-reader because you can download anybook you want, for free. It’s an .epub format so you can use a website like bookzz.org to search the book you want and download it for “free”, much like how you steal music off the internet …

Why get an e-reader instead of a tablet? Because an e-reader uses e-link technology, which is different from a tablet. You can read long hours on the e-reader without hurting your eyes and the e-reader will last for a month of reading without recharging the battery.

Typicall I read about 30-45 minutes every day. On top of that, I read the news on the internet (right now it’s bitcoin stuff).

What’s cool about the Kobo e-reader is that you can save articles on the Internet and it will transfer directly to your e-reader. Pretty neat.

I had been using an e-reader since 2011 and I don’t regret. Actually I think it’s one of the best invest you can make this year, gadget wise. Grab your e-reader today, you can thank me later.

** goes without saying, reading will expand your vocabulary, which can make you more articulate. This, in turn, helps you explain abstract concepts in a lucid way.

Before reading: “Brah, this mother fucker is dumb as shit, you feel me? This guy don’t read books he goes on twitter and shit, this guy dumb doesn’t get shit anyways brah.”

After reading: “This guy has room temperature IQ because he immersed himself in social media like twitter and instagram. Without reading great books, his brains atrophied over the years to a raisin. He’s not articulate, so he speaks in memes. COME AT ME BRO!”

Download a podcast app on your phone

Currently I’m using “pocket cast” which is an excellent app. I listen to pod cast while I’m driving, walking or do grocery. In a typical week, I listen to about 10 hours worth of education (I also listen at 1.4x speed)

Past week, by listening to the “you’re not so smart” pod cast, I learned a lot about critical thinking – namely fallacies like straw men, survivorship bias, confirmation bias, Texas sharp shooter, black or white fallacy etc etc.

I just started out listening to podcast this past week – holy crap, I was missing out. I always thought podcast was lame and full of commercials – something like a radio show – but I was wrong … podcast are awesome. Audio books are great too.

Reading and listening isn’t enough …

It helps to take down notes to reinforce what you had learned. For example, since I’m learning how to trade crypto-currencies I’m taking a course on forex and I wrote down 5 pages worth of notes. I probably won’t be looking back at my notes but it’s good to re-enforce the learning material into my brains.

Second off, you should have a journal. Think of a journal as having a conversation with yourself. You write your thoughts down, so you can re-enforce your learning and figure out if there are logical flaws in your thinking. Do this every day and you’ll become a critical thinker within 3 months.

It also helps to talk to intelligent people to bounce ideas around, or they can poke holes in your thoughts / thinking so you can become a more critical thinker.  You can join skype groups, message boards, IRC channels and local meetup.com. Find people who are smarter than you and pick their brains (eating it is optional, I suppose …)

Okay, so what’s the benefit of being smart again?

Getting anywhere in life requires being smart – and putting the useful information into action, to get towards your goals. Whatever you want in life – with the right information, action plan and consistency, you will get there.

When you’re smart and discipline you can eat a nutritious diet and exercise, which molds your body into a lean, fighting machine.

When you have the intelligence and emotional control, you can use build a skills set that makes you money. Or by reading books – along with introspection – you can build your emotional IQ, to become a more charismatic person with empathy and your own moral values etc.

Not so intelligent people (both IQ and emotional IQ wise) can fall into the trap of being poor, fat and lazy and not know how to get out of it because they don’t have the intellectual or emotional awareness to get out. There is the uber human and there is the regular human.

In conclusion …

Regular people: drink beer and watch reality TV shows, read Harry Potter and Hunger games, listen to pop music in the car, rarely if ever read non-fiction books, listen to Oprah Winfrey book recommendation (LOL), had not advanced their money making skill set or picked up a book since leaving school.

The Uber Human: constantly read books from the brightest minds in history, read non-fiction books on philosophy, science, finance, economics, psychology, political science and history. Listen to podcast in the car, while walking, and before going to bed. Puts the information to action to get where he wants in life.

The information is there. The choice is yours which path you want to embrace. One is easy, the other is “harder”. What is hard now becomes easy later.

This is Max Uber, over and out.