Since completing my education, I’ve noticed a decrease in mentally stimulating activities in my daily life. For this reason I’ve been experiencing a sense of cognitive decline, feeling like my mind isn’t being challenged or engaged as much as it used to be. I’m looking for ways to stimulate my brain back. I’m interested in exploring activities that can help, such as reading, puzzles, games, and other intellectually stimulating stuff. Could you recommend some engaging and challenging options to help me get started? Thanks a lot
I like books about history, and independently released books about any topic.
So… I feel like I waste most of my time, but the things I can think of are philosophy and science videos, books, music theory and practice. The problem is consistency for me. Perhaps a group, a class, a club, or something like that if you struggle with it too.
Books on early christianity (first two-hundred years) have been super engaging for the past 20 months. I’m an atheist, so this was a surprising topic to be of such interest.
For mainstream opinions, Bart Ehrman has a bunch of books. “How Jesus Became God,” was especially good, as Jesus only preached that he was the Mesiah.
For stuff that’s a bit edgier, there’s the theory that Jesus was an ahistorical figure (three books into that topic and I believe this to be true), you could try Robert M. Price or Earl Doherty.
You could also check out random wikipedia articles. Plus podcasts:
Noble Blood focuses on historical events through the lenses of nobility (I’m a history nerd).
Stuff the British Stole is a seasonal show that deep-dives stolen museum items and their legacy.
(Are you detecting a trend?)
The Fall of Civilizations podcast deep-dives ancient civilizations. Phenomenal.
(Spoiler: I’m a history nerd.)
History of Rome is a long series of short episodes from a historian. It’s very amateur at the beginning.
(There it is again!)
I personally love reading articles on Red Sails and ProleWiki. There’s always more to learn about Marxism-Leninism, and these sites are treasure troves.
I also like meditation to clear my head.
Factory building games help me with this as I get older. Factorio, Dyson Sphere Program, Satisfactory. They’re endless puzzles.
Wikipedia for sure
Doing any nature related activities away from screens, whether it be daily walks, gardening, hiking, kayaking, mountain climbing, swimming, camping is really good for both mental and physical health.
In that blue zones documentary, it’s said that daily walks and daily gardening help your mind and longevity more than any other activity.
Learning a musical instrument is always good, and is something you can show off. Knitting, crocheting, or any kind of ravelry works your mind, and you can also listen to audiobooks while doing it. Woodworking (you can start small, even doing spoons and things).
I wouldn’t be too focused on doing mentally challenging activities. Screens wear out our brains enough, and what we really need is time away from them to recharge.
Outside of that I’d just recommend reading a lot of non-fiction, audiobooks where available.
I got into doing nature photography over the pandemic as a way to get out of the house, and it’s been amazing for my mental health. It forced me to get out and just live in the moment really paying attention to the environment around me. I’ve realized how little we notice of the world around us normally. I’ve also found martial arts are a similar experience in a sense that you’re really just focused on the moment and forget about everything else you’ve been thinking about.
I’d really love to get into that, especially bird photography as it’s been fun to try to learn bird calls and try to spot them. Nature really recharges the brain in a way nothing else can. Esp for those of us who are goal oriented or always feeling the need to be accomplishing something, being out in nature helps us drop all the expectations and distractions.
You find a particular part of nature you enjoy photographing? I’m a botany nerd myself so I love to photograph macro flowers. But I’ve got some friends into birding too, much more difficult.
I started with plants, but moved on to birds and occasional critters like chipmunks. Birds definitely take a bit of patience to get nice shots I find. I post some of my stuff on here https://pixelfed.social/Yogthos
Nice, those are some good bird pics. I like the coloration and little red flourishes on the woodpeckers.
Around me we get a lot of nut hatches, and titmouses which are my fav. They have little mohawks, and are quirky, but brave, as I’ve seen them do david and goliath standoffs with much bigger birds like crows. Not my pic but here’s one
Carbon offsetting. Carbon negative projects. Photobioreactors. Biogas digesters. Do something for the planet health.
Good suggestions. Speaking of carbon negative and biogas digesters, have you heard of Giant miscanthus? It is both carbon fixing a great feedstock for biomass energy. It is a lot more productive per area planted than a wood would(heh) be since it is a fast growing perennial grass. It stores a lot of carbon and nutrients in it’s roots which it then reuses to regrow when warmer weather comes.
I have not heard of it but will do some preliminary studies to see about the concept. There are several types of data points for plant, algea, carbon locking and long-term co2 capture storage. How to process and deal with biomass and there’s some very mentally challenging projects you could choose to work on. I am very open to dialogue and discussion if you choose this path. I have studied it well. I am currently building a full carbon negative house. Reproducible and modern smart home not a clay hut or hippie house. Hands off, low maintenance. Perhaps we can continue if your interested.
Yeah I looked it into a bit recently, and found it very interesting mostly on the basis of production per acre. Are you planning on solar for the home’s energy or some other source? Now that I think about it something like biomass would work quite well as a supplemental energy source for the winter when the sun isn’t out much. If you are going for solar will you have a battery system as well for evenings / winter or are you grid-tieing for that?
Processing the biomass could take some planning if you produce it on a large scale. I ran some rough numbers for total energy production per acre per year for giant miscanthus and it is quite shockingly high. It takes 2-3 years to get established but once it does it is a powerhouse. It can produce 15-20 tons (short) of biomass per acre depending on growing climate/conditions once it is fully established. With 20t/acre, it has a 17 MJ/kg LHV(heat from burning) and it would contain about 85,679 kWh of energy; At 40% electrical conversion efficiency, you can expect around 34,271 kWh of usable electrical energy. That’s enough to power and heat 3-4 houses if you burn it in a CHP power plant.
So you could potentially plant 1/3 - 1/4 acre of a home’s yard and have easily have enough biomass to heat and/or power a home. Definitely could be worth looking into giant miscanthus (wiki link) depending on the area and site. Being a plant, it tends to produce more the warmer the weather is in the area as long as it has sufficient water to grow. At that scale all you would probably need is a scythe, a shed, and a fireplace for heat. A small hay-baler might be nice too, even if not strictly necessary. It may not be as efficient per area as solar but I imagine is a whole lot cheaper.
I also read that with torrefaction it could be a drop-in fuel for existing coal plants which would be stellar from an environmental perspective. I think it would compliment solar well particularly in the winter when you burn excess harvested sun for heat so you could have a battery / fuel usage then for when you can’t produce any energy. Anyway I hope you / someone finds it useful. I hope I didn’t overshare, I feel like I wrote a book lol.
Edit: I’d also be interested in hearing about your planned house. I have read about house building some from an energy use / conservation perspective and found it interesting. Have you read / heard about Passive House’s? I suspect they overlap pretty well with carbon negative housing in general.
I liked the human resource machine games. I’m currently reading Foucault as well I find it pretty stimulating even if I think he could have used simpler language to get his point across clearer.
Get into Ham Radio, not just get a license and talk, get into it. make your own radio, antennas, learn the science, learn firmware programming and microcontrollers, everywhere you turn there is something new to learn and puzzle at. And you can help with community service things (only if you want to). It’s great because you can go as deep as you want (or as shallow), keep your mind engaged and have fun doing it.
Lovely idea!
What did you used to find stimulating?
https://www.philosophizethis.org/podcast
The gift that keeps on giving.
Maybe learn programming, or other language.
Philosophy is excellent food for thought, working through a MOOC course (MIT/Yale?) and doing the prescribed readings might strike your fancy. Happy to give more specific recs if you have some existing curiosity about a topic. Side note that it’s difficult to find people to talk to online about serious philosophical topics, the options I’ve seen (discord groups, facebook groups) usually aren’t very engaging but the reading and lectures and contemplation are engaging on your own imo.
Watch ancient history documentaries like the Fall of Civilizations or History with Cy channels on youtube (Fall of Civilizations is also/originally a podcast if you prefer). Whenever I am feeling empty of interesting thoughts this is my go to. When I watch frequently I constantly find my thoughts combining and recombining history with my current experience in a way that feels awfully close to intellectual stimulation. I also find it gives some mildly comforting perspective on current events.
Built to purpose gadgets. Getting into arduino or similar as a hobbyist can be intellectually engaging. The process of identifying something in your space you could enhance then drafting and executing a plan (including some basic programming) is kind of like a puzzle. Building things you don’t need like an LED based checklist for chores that resets every day, a pedestal that spins to give a house plant even sunlight, or a solar powered bird house might be a fun challenge.
Edit to add that if you live near a university professors will usually let you unofficially audit their class if you’re interested in a topic and have time during the week.
WikiTok Bloomscroll through Wikipedia articles
Simon Tatham Puzzles Micro games
yucata.de Online boardgames
librivox.org Free audio-books
WikiTok Bloomscroll through Wikipedia articles
This gives me the same feeling that I got from StumbleUpon
There’s a near-endless supply of great mythology and legend to read and explore from all sorts of cultures dating back as far as the dawn of writing. I’ve had a lot of fun reading and comparing tales from various times and places, taking time to also note where in history the stories were being written down and what else was happening. Strong recommendation for anyone wanting a unique view on the history of societies and the stories they held (or still hold) dear.
