Brain Expert: How to Stay Sharp When AI Does the Thinking | Jim Kwik

Jim Kwik (0:00)

Cognitive offloading leads potentially to cognitive surrendering.

SPEAKER_2 (0:04)

Should I still learn the language? Should I still learn math? There are all these things that I can now offload.

Jim Kwik (0:08)

You wouldn't go to the gym and ask your friends to lift weights for you.

SPEAKER_2 (0:10)

If you had to conceptualize what the modern mental gym looks like.

Jim Kwik (0:15)

It would be like a crossfit, kind of like a crossfit for the mind.

SPEAKER_2 (0:18)

I feel there is a bit of a meaning crisis right now with a lot of people who maybe got meaning from their profession.

Jim Kwik (0:24)

I think leading an intentional life is very rare.

SPEAKER_2 (0:28)

So you're excited to have Jim Kwik here, best-selling author of Limitless and now Limitless Daily.

Jim Kwik (0:33)

Yeah.

SPEAKER_2 (0:33)

One of the top experts in memory, focus, accelerated learning, which I feel like is so prescient in a world where my attention span is being destroyed by the algorithm and AI might be leading to cognitive decline. So we got a lot to talk about. Yeah.

Jim Kwik (0:46)

Let's jump into it. Thanks everyone is tuning in.

SPEAKER_2 (0:48)

It's going to be fun.

Let's start with, you've been coaching some high performers on how to make the best use of their mind for the past 30 years. What is something that has surprised you about how the most exceptional people treat their mind, like their relationship with their mind, that is different than maybe your average person?

Jim Kwik (1:06)

They definitely prioritize their mind. Sometimes we use mind and brain kind of interchangeably, but they prioritize their, they use their brain. For me, intelligence is about using your brain, directing your mind to create the life you want, right? It's very more practical. Some people look at it as intelligence, as pattern recognition. Some people see it as cognitive flexibility, ability to change your opinions based on new data, right? Being flexible that way. But high performers, they treat that as their most valuable asset, their mind.

And they invest in it, and they protect their mind from, especially their attention, because your attention is, for founders, it's everything. Your ability to make good decisions, having solid judgment, be able to attack and solve problems and puzzles, be able to be creative, be able to innovate. So it's the highest leverage point. It's not like an agricultural age industry, where it's based on muscle power. Our worth in society is more, it's not brute strength, it's brain strength. It's not muscle power, it's mind power today. And they protect their attention rigorously. I was saying, the one thing that's equal, everyone watching, you have different incomes, you have different access and networks and education, but everybody has 24 hours in a day. And so they're very interested in leverage. And then they protect their assets like they would a capital asset.

So they protect their focus. They keep the most important thing, the most important thing, which I think is the most important thing.

And especially first thing in the morning, where it's easy to be distracted or be reactive. The first thing if you're picking up your device, our mutual friend, Brennan Bichard, says, your inbox is nothing but a convenient organizational system for other people's agenda for your life.

SPEAKER_2 (2:55)

So I have brick now. I can't touch any of my apps in the morning.

Jim Kwik (2:58)

And that's what elite performers do. They're militant. It's non-negotiable.

SPEAKER_2 (3:03)

Amongst these people, are there any cognitive weaknesses that you see become more common the more successful you become?

Jim Kwik (3:09)

Well, throughout time, technology has changed the way our minds think, right? Like from the written word to printing presses, where we don't have to remember as much, to all the way to calculators and GPS, right? We have a device telling us when and where to turn. We don't have to develop our visual spatial intelligence with a calculator. The other day, I was at a client event and there was 10 of us at dinner. The bill came and four people took out their phones to go on their calculator, divide by 10, which show up. I think one of the challenges is cognitive offloading, where we rely on technology to not just remember things. It's called digital dementia, the high reliance technology. Remember, your phones keeps your to-dos, your grocery list, your calendar, all your phone numbers. I mean, how many phone numbers do people remember growing up?

SPEAKER_2 (4:00)

Never, except my mom and dad know.

Jim Kwik (4:01)

But now, it's just like one or two phone numbers. And not that I want to memorize 500 phone numbers, but it should be concerning if we've lost the ability to remember one phone number, or a pin number, or a seed phrase, or someone's name, right? And so the cognitive offloading leads potentially to cognitive surrendering. And what happens to a society or a civilization where, if your brain is an organ but acts like a muscle, it's use it or lose it.