(Part 2) Best products from r/IWantToLearn

>IWTL How to be more positive and be able to get over the slumps of sadness and feelings of inadequacy in life.
>
>Recently I've began to notice that I have feelings of being inadequate in a lot of things in life. I feel that I'm pretty confident in every day life. I do my best to look good, smell good, and make sure I treat everyone I cross with the best attitude I can offer. I try to make sure I'm the best version of myself that can exist, but I still find myself thinking that I'm not good enough. That my friends deserve a better person to talk to, my girlfriend deserves a better boyfriend, and that I myself am just not cutting it. I want to learn how to fix this toxic mindset and be able to turn my thoughts around and be proud of myself for what I'm doing correctly. I'm a 22 year old Male by the way. Not sure if that has any correlation at all, but it's out there.

It's worth learning how the system (i.e. your brain) works in order to create change. In a nutshell:

1. Thoughts create emotions (events are just events; your interpretation of those events is a thought, and thoughts become emotions)
   
2. You have basically a Twitter feed in your head, streaming ideas into your brain
   
3. Most people never realize they can audit that feed (I didn't, until I read the books below)
   
4. TL;DR - you don't have to believe everything you think (and what you think becomes how you feel)
   
   If you're up for some reading & practice exercises, get these two books: (same author, second one is a workbook you fill out)
   
   

• Feeling Good
  
• Ten Days to Self-Esteem (literally a tool to help you identify how you think, how you feel, and decide how you want to change both of those things)
  
  I'd highly recommend walking through the book in the second link, as it helps you write stuff down, audit (i.e. review) it, and then decide how you'd rather think (and eventually feel) instead. It's a simple mechanism, but externalizing it is really what gives you control over it, because you can literally see it, on paper, in front of you. We all lie to ourselves, we all let ourselves slide, and we all believe fuzzy notions about ourselves that are untrue, whether it's an inability to accept mistakes due to perfectionism or feeling sad or inadequate or whatever you're struggling with. Learning how the different mechanisms in your brain work (thoughts create emotions, you don't have to believe everything you think, etc.) is hugely empowering for changing how you feel!
  
  On a tangent, there's a really excellent Ted Talk by Monica Lewinsky on shame that I just watched the other day, and is extremely well-written & well-delivered:
  
  https://www.ted.com/talks/monica_lewinsky_the_price_of_shame
  
  If you're not familiar with her history, in her early 20's, she fell in love with her married boss & slept with him. This isn't big news, except that her boss at the time was President of United States Bill Clinton, so it was a huge scandal. The catch was that we were just at the beginning of the Internet age, so she got mega-attacked worldwide online. Today, unfortunately, cyber-bullying is pretty normal, but she had to learn how to deal with it & take ownership of her story instead of letting others or her internal "Twitter feed" define her. Pretty good talk to listen to! Kind of the overall idea of the books above & that talk are:
  
  

1. You are valid just being you
   
2. Being imperfect is OK (everyone on the planet is imperfect!); mistakes happen & they can be worked on
   
3. Thoughts create emotion; you can audit what you think & choose how you want to feel about things proactively, instead of reactively
   
4. You can let others define you, or you can let your internal Twitter feed define you, orrrrr you can work on how you think, in order to cement your self-image down
   
   My situation was similar to yours; I always felt like a second-class citizen, emotionally - happy on the outside, but lots of doubts & anxiety on the inside. For me, going through this process was both an essential part of maturing & also for defining exactly who I am. I'm not a big fan of the Hollywood approach of "go out & find yourself"; I'm a bigger fan of "think about things & define who you want to be", i.e. I like to be nice, I like to help other people, I like to do good-quality work, I like to feel good & am willing to do the things required to make me feel good (ex. get enough sleep, eat throughout the day, audit my thinking patterns, etc.), and so on. You absolutely should NOT be walking around feeling like you're not good enough all the time! You should be feeling good & happy instead! Learning how your mind works & how to tweak the system has helped me a lot with that problem.

Rich Dad Poor Dad catches a lot of flak, but it's actually really good at teaching the absolute basics in an easy-to-follow manner. Like, learn what a Cash Flow Statement is, increase your asset column, learn basic accounting language, separate emotions and money, minimize taxes. Just glean the overall principles he's teaching and don't blindly follow his specific strategies.

The Richest Man in Babylon is another great, easy to read, investing 101 book.

And The Millionaire Next Door is a research-based book on Millionaires in America and what kind of habits and mindsets got them to their current wealth. It's a wonderfully refreshing read after being brainwashed by tv and movies saying that millionaires won it or stole it and live lavish lives. Most actual millionaires are pretty frugal and hard working with modest lives.

---
And here are some resources to help you learn all the new words and concepts:

• Investopedia
  
• Bogleheads
  
• Khan Academy
  -- Microeconomics
  -- Macroeconomics
  -- Finance
  
• Personal Finance subreddit
  
• Investing subreddit
  
• Finance subreddit
  
• Accounting subreddit
  
• Financial Independence subreddit
  
• Business subreddit
  
• Economics subreddit
  
  ---
  And when you get pretty familiar with the basics and want to start messing with stuff, I've enjoyed the Think or Swim paper money route. They give you $200,000 in fake money to play around with and invest and practice your strategies. It helps you get acquainted with the research and the interface and the fees for investing. It's a wonderful tool.
  
  And then The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham is supposed to be a pretty good comprehensive guide the advanced basics (is that a term?) of investing.
  
  ---
  Or if you want to skip alllll of this and just hire someone, I've read in those subreddits that you want to find a fee based financial adviser. Which you can do here.
  
  .
  
  
  I hope I've helped man! It's a lot of fun to learn about. I wish you all the best.

Keep a dream journal. Doesn't matter if you can only remember vague details, or if you are not even sure if a dream scene occurred; write down ANYTHING that might be relevant to your dreams. Every serious dreamer has one handy nearby.

Your brother is right. Everyone has dreams--which is just REM sleep--and their frequency increases per hour as the period of time of sleeping progresses.

The number one site I recommend is Dream Views. I know the site is dedicated to lucid dreaming, but 1) there are a lot of people on the site who have the same problem that you have in terms of remembering stuff and 2) your chances of experiencing a lucid dream increases as your recall of dreams also increases. The best books I know that deal with dreaming are: 1) Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, 2) Control Your Dreams, and 3) The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep. Each contain a tiny bit of new age stuff, but if you are able to ignore those details then you're golden. The only one I advise against for now is book number 3; you need to place a LOT of effort in order to effectively carry out the exercises the book describes. It's well-written and informative though.

A topic that you might find of interest is "Dream Yoga". Like the 3rd book, don't do it if you're a beginner or you suck at meditation.

Finally some more modern stuff: A SciAm article about dreaming and a "HowStuffWorks" section on dream recall.

I know most of this stuff talks about lucid dreaming, but dream recall and lucid dreaming are interconnected with each other. At some point during the recording of your dreams you will have a lucid dream and most likely you will freak out. You might have already had one, but I can never be too cautious.

A last bit, if you are interested in taking supplements. If not, then you can skip this part. Anyways, there's an excellent book that talks about supplements that can increase your dream recall. The majority of them are recognized nootropics, while others are a bit sketch. The book is called Advanced Lucid Dreaming: The Power of Supplements. You can also look up "dream supplements" on google. Here is my personal list of supplements that I have been taking for about 1-2 months now:
25 mg of DHEA
650mg of choline
B-complex 100 to get 100mg of B6
8 mg of galantamine
530 mg of Valerian Root
5 mg Melatonin time release (You only need 1 mg, but I did not know this when I bought my bulk supply)
500 mg of Bacopa Monniera
My dreams haven't been that weird, while my recall is more improved than usual (I have been lucid dreaming and remembering my dreams since 6 years old, though it might have been even earlier. Can't remember). No major mood swings, though the above ^ dosages work perfectly fine with my body. I did my own personal research and estimated the supplements' effects on my body though, so I wouldn't recommend using my dosages. I'm 17 btw if you were wondering how the supplements might affect a developing brain; no major changes from what I can tell.

Something that you might want to start, if you haven't already: meditation. Not only does it decrease the daily stress you get, but it helps hone your concentration skills. You also learn how to relax yourself fairly quickly :D There have been some studies that meditation helps increase dream recall/frequency of lucid dreams, though I can't find that many right now...

tl;dr version:
Keep a dream journal. Read some books about lucid dreaming and dream recall. Go on a website called "Dream Views" and immerse yourself in their tutorials/FAQs. If you're serious about remembering your dreams then look up "Dream Yoga"; a good resource is this website. Meditation helps A LOT.

I will copypaste an older sub of mine about public speaking… though it's pertinent here!

The human voice is an incredibly complex machine that involves your entire body.

Right off the bat, if you know that you will be in a situation that demands any sort of lucid speech (such as a presentation, interview, or first date), you can do some warmups in the privacy of your own home. do these warmups for starters. It's stupid as hell, but it really works (hope you don't have roommies).

I also recommend making the most goofy faces you can for about 10 minutes before stepping out the door, with a focus on the jaws and lips (loosening these muscles up helps you enunciate).

Second: stop smoking cigarettes completely… and do not expect yourself to have clear enunciation after smoking other stuff like pot. If you're a smoker, stop here.

Practice breathing from the diaphragm. Most of us don't do this, but the power of your voice comes from the diaphragm… not from simply forcing air out of your mouth. Think of the way a trumpet works.

Most importantly you should buy a Voice and Diction textbook off of Amazon because, well, I just took one class in college and these are the tricks I picked up. A good textbook will give you guided exercises such as tongue twisters for practice, and the like.

It would be a good idea to do this with friends or — if in private — record yourself and then LISTEN to yourself.

If you do not have an objective way to understand your progress, you can end up hurting your voice much more than helping it… and you'll just learn very bad habits.

Like I said, I just took a class for a semester in undergrad — so I'm no expert by any measure — but it had a BIG and POSITIVE impact on my personal AND professional lives.

edit - that yoga site for diaphragmatic breathing is the best I could quickly find; there may be better out there… but sites like yahoo answers are focused on the throat and mouth (which is totally incorrect) as opposed to the chest.

If you want a deeper voice, you really need to learn how to breathe and speak from the diaphragm.

Disclaimer: I love consuming knowledge but I'm not a news junkie.

> As someone who would like to continue building my knowledge of the world I sometimes get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information there is out there.

You need to know how to select knowledge to read and devour. (Actually, go ahead and read the rest of Dr Wozniak's articles while you're at it.)

> With the news I tend to get overwhelmed. I'd like to come up with some kind of system where I filter out for quality, in-depth stories yet keep up-to-date with a wide range of topics/regions.

Reading straight from the newswire is akin to drinking from a firehose.

Regarding this: I would personally have a machine learning algorithm do the filtering for me, one that I have preferably written myself and tweaked to perfection. Sorry but I do not know any off-the-shelf solutions to this.

> For my other interests I'm mainly reading non-fiction right now. I really hate the feeling that I'll forget a good amount of the detail of what I read which makes me feel compelled to put everything I read on my re-read list (which is problematic considering I still have a substantial to-read list).

Feel like you'll forget something that you want to remember forever? Use a spaced repetition system. SuperMemo used to be the big name in the game but I personally prefer Anki.

> Any suggestions for a system of organizing knowledge for myself (a personal wiki, a series of documents, notebooks, etc)?

I would strongly recommend writing up a series of documents on a topic, and then SRS-ize all the relevant facts. Store a hard copy of the original document you wrote up along with a list of sources in a file somewhere safe, so you can pull it up if you want to properly reference something / give someone else a summary/overview of the topic. It is important to first understand the material before you put it into your SRS system.

On a semi-related note, if you wish to adopt speedreading, take a look at Peter Kump's book on the subject. Reading doesn't have to be linear, I find reading non-linearly to work best.

First off, I'd recommend looking into a book like this.

Second, when doing something like multiplication, it always helps to break a problem down into easier steps. Typically, you want to be working with multiples of 10/100/1000s etc.

For multiplying 32 by 32, I would break it into two problems: (32 x 30) + (32 x 2). With a moderate amount of practice, you should quickly be able to see that the first term is 960, and the second is 64. Adding them together gives the answer: 1024. It can be tricky to keep all these numbers in your head at once, but that honestly just comes down to practice.

Also, that same question can be expressed as 32^2 . These types of problems have a whole bunch of neat tricks. One that I recall from the book I linked above has to do with squaring any number ending in a 5, like 15 or 145. First, the number will always end in 25. For the leading digits, take the last 5 off the number, and multiply the remaining digits by their value +1. So, for 15 we just have 1x2=2. For 145, we have 14x15=210. Finally, tack 25 on the end of that, so you have 15^2 = (1x2)25 = 225, and 145^2 = (14x15)25 = 21025. Boom! Now you can square any number ending in 5 really quick.

Edit: Wanted to add some additional comments that have helped me out through the years. First, realize that

(1) Addition is easier than subtraction,

(2) Addition and subtraction are easier than multiplication,

(3) Multiplication is easier than division.

Let's go through these one by one. For (1), try to rewrite a subtraction problem as addition. Say you're given 31 - 14; then rephrase the question as, what plus 14 equals 31? You can immediately see that the ones digit is 7, since 4+7 = 11. We have to remember that we are carrying the ten over to the next digit, and solve 1 + (1 carried over) + what = 3. Obviously the tens digit for our answer is 1, and the answer is 17. I hope I didn't explain that too poorly.

For (2), that's pretty much what I was originally explaining at the start. Try to break a multiplication problem down to a problem of simple multiplication plus addition or subtraction. One more example: 37 x 40. Here, 40 looks nice and simple to work with; 37 is also pretty close to it, so let's add 3 to it and just make sure to subtract it later. That way, you end up with 40 x 40 - (3 x 40) = 1600 - 120 = 1480.

I don't really have any hints with division, unfortunately. I don't really run into it too often, and when I do, I just resort to some mental long division.

This book, Level up your life might be helpful. It's about treating your life like a video game. You complete quests, fight bosses, and level up.

Oh yeah, and 4 Hour Workweek might be up your alley. I haven't read this one, but my best friend loves it and I've read some of his other books, which were very good.
It wasn't the best read - I felt like I was getting a sales pitch the entire time - but it definitely had some good ideas in it.

Third year Microbio major here! Just picked this book up but could have been much more helpful earlier. Quick, easy read with lots of good insight on many common errors students make when studying or learning topics and is backed by a lot of recent, well supported studies. Can bring to light a lot of things you know should happen when studying but just don't. Has a lot of good tips and strategies and can overall motivate you to get better at learning! I recommend it!
http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Numbers-Science-Flunked-Algebra/dp/039916524X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417378070&sr=8-1&keywords=a+mind+for+numbers

I've found that purposefully building a habit is what keeps practice going. Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit has all the information you need to learn how to do that, but I'll try to summarise it there:

• Find a cue for the beginning of your routine (example: if I finish having dinner, then I practice)
  
• Streamline your practice so that it can be mostly a routine you can engage easily and almost mindlessly in
  
• Reward yourself for engaging in the routine
  
• Keep track of your progress
  
  I am definitely forgetting some steps, forgive me. . . But the book I referred to definitely has the answer you're looking for.

For dealing with e-mails and various scraps of paper, I recommend reading Getting Things Done by David Allen. For organizing any long term tasks or projects, I recommend The Project Success Method by Clinton Padgett.

Other than that, I would recommend trying to go paperless as much as possible. Purchase a good scanner like the Fujitsu ScanSnap and try to utilize smart phone apps that can convert images to PDF (such as CamScanner for Android). I would also recommend using services such as DropBox and Evernote to help keep notes and files organized and synced across all your computers/devices.

Just remember the key to a good system is something that is simple to use. If it takes too much time you won't stick to it and your filing system will begin to fall apart.

Aerthe has some solid points, but let me add a few. I really like to use /r/kickassday as an online to do list. I've used lots of stuff like my phone's calendar, or Remember The Milk, but since they're never easily right there in front of me, publicly, I don't use them. Talking about your daily agenda sometimes helps you get them done. There is also /r/getmotivated.

And another one is a book, that I highly suggest reading: The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss. It's mostly about freeing yourself from the standard style workforce, but I've found it extremely helpful in determining what you want out of life. His way for setting goals and working to achieve them is excellent.

This question isn't really about sciences, per say, it's about energy and motivation.

1. The quality of your life is comprised of the sum of the five people with whom you spend the most time. You can be intentional about who you spend time with. So find people who are positive, motivated, smart, high-energy, and interesting, and spend as much time with them as you can. Minimize time with friends and family who complain, are lazy, gossips, blame-shifters, and so on. Join some meetups at meetup.com and show up. Meet people. Commit to one or two meetups a week, minimum.
   
   
2. Take control of your mornings, because mornings set the tone for the rest of the day. Read this book and do literally everything it says. Give it two weeks.
   
   
3. Your diet has a greater impact on your sense of well-being than you might imagine. Clean it up. Eat food, mostly plants, not so much. Eliminate sugar completely, except on Saturdays.
   
   
4. Exercise.
   
   
5. Use your calendar! Schedule things on your Google calendar and have it send reminders to your phone. Put "exercise" on there. Now you have to do it.
   
   
6. Establish good habits. This is a good place to start.

id say just try to be mindful, and catch yourself. it seems obvious but if you're trying to have better posture, or drink more water, or improve your diet, most of the work of changing your habits isn't, you know, the overarching month by month or year by year "decision --> results".

when you notice yourself slouching, sit up. that simple. just because youre slouching or you haven't been catching yourself slouching doesnt mean "you've failed."

this same pattern copies over to when you fall off the wagon and eat some empty caloric junk food, or want to change some other habit.

i dont remember everything from this, but there is a pretty good audio book i listened to called The Power of Habit where a journalist looks into the science of habits and behavior modification (and related stuff like addiction etc).

Check out this book:

Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House

https://www.amazon.com/Home-Comforts-Science-Keeping-House/dp/0743272862

It has the answer to how to properly clean everything--dishes, bedsheets, litterbox, shower--with instructions for how to make homemade cleaning solutions, how often you should clean items/spaces, et al. It's made a huge difference in my life and saved me money on store bought cleaning aids.

There's a glossary in the back (obv) so you can easily search for what it is you want to clean.

This looks like a good book

http://www.amazon.com/MAKE-Electronics-Learning-Through-Discovery/dp/0596153740/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279769926&sr=8-3

This IS a good book but deals with advanced theories.


http://www.amazon.com/Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/0521370957/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279769926&sr=8-16


And this looks pretty good.

http://www.amazon.com/Circuitbuilding-Yourself-Dummies-Ward-Silver/dp/0470173424/ref=sr_1_21?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279769941&sr=8-21


Go to the book store, pick up some books. Go the the library and see what they have. Pick up old radios and junk off of the street take them home and pull them apart but be careful of the capacitors, if you dont know what a capacitor is then read one of the above books.

Look on craigslist for free electronics and start taking them apart. Be careful of anything that uses Alternating current, anything that plugs into a wall deals with large voltages so be sure to start small.

I'm kind of in the same boat as you. First, what are you selling? A product you make? Ebook? Or are you selling something wholesale that's produced elsewhere? Dropshipping?

Some good places to start are by reading the 4 Hour Work-Week. Tim is great at showing how this is done, and how to start a successful e-commerce biz by filling in a gap in the market. I also appreciate his time management suggestions. I also turn to a lot of other places on the web for suggestions... Here's a few to get you started!

Entrepreneur.com

r/Ecommerce

r/SmallBusiness

Check out /r/learnart and /r/drawing. I just discovered them myself & have begun starting to try drawing. I also bought this book. It's supposed to arrive tomorrow, so I can't give a personal review of it just yet - but it's been recommended by several people on the learnart sub, so I figure it's a good place to start. Good luck!

I'd agree with all of this, I honestly can't remember how I learned the notes myself. I think it just came naturally from playing.

In terms of finger exercises a really good book I have is "The Virtuoso Pianist" by Charles-Louis Hanon. As you can see by that link it seems to have a good few criticisms but I found it really good myself. I'd say you should go over them with your piano teacher now and again just to ensure you aren't drilling them incorrectly. A possible way you could learn the notes as well could be by saying them out loud as you are doing the exercises.

You can check it out on IMSLP here anyway and decide for yourself, or if you'd prefer a hard copy of it there are plenty on amazon too.

Stephen King wrote a book a while back called ON WRITING that, while being more focused on writing novels and short stories, details many of the pitfalls that new writers will encounter when starting a new story. It's a fantastic tool, written by somebody that knows a thing or two about telling good stories, and it can help you get a leg up. I highly recommend it!

As for formatting a document to conform to screenplay requirements, try this wonderful software called Trelby

For thinking like a mathematician, try this book. May be a bit simplistic in the beginning, but it is clear and may offer you a different perspective.

Another issue may be with your study or practice habits. Try this course on Learning How to Learn (or this book, which is by the teacher of that course and essentially the same material).

Finally, this dude's site has some good descriptions of difficult concepts.

Good luck. You can do it with effort.

A dream journal is definitely the way to go. Also, try to give yourself time when you wake up to stay still and remember your dream. The sooner you start to move around, get coffee, shower, etc. it'll slip away.

There are a few good books on the subject. It's good to saturate yourself with the topic. Read books, visit forums, re-read your journal. I began lucid dreaming 4 years ago or so, and my room mate had a lucid dream without trying anything at all just because I talked about it so much. So the more you're thinking about it/exposing yourself to it, the more likely it will be to be in a dream and think "Am I dreaming?"

http://www.amazon.com/Exploring-World-Dreaming-Stephen-LaBerge/dp/034537410X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1312955635&sr=8-2

Best online resource: All about circuits

Best Book: Art of Electronics

Best starting projects: Working with the basic stamp (though any other microcontroller kit would work just as well)

Feeling Good by Dr. David Burns would work well as a starting point. It doesn't take extensive preparation or much special knowledge to start work on CBT, but it does require you to commit to doing the exercises. The book isn't a replacement for a mental healthcare professional. Aside from it being just generally helpful to have someone talk you through the exercises, a professional can help you with issues that may be keeping you from doing the work in the first place.

exercise is great for depression like most everyone else here has already mentioned.

also Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is very useful for many who suffer from depression. a popular book on the subject is feeling good: the new mood therapy

That being said, she must actively want to get better or else she will find excuses for every helpful suggestion you make. You can't will someone else out of their depression, they must put forth the energy and effort to make changes for their own good, and not because of some external pressure (e.g. pressure from friends and family).

Then I cannot recommend this enough
https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn

And the book by the author of the course
https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Numbers-Science-Flunked-Algebra-ebook/dp/B00G3L19ZU

Really invaluable and easy to follow. Works great for me and I hope for you as well.

If you want to learn to calculate quickly in your head, probably the most fruitful thing is to pick up a bunch of tricks for mental math. One good video course for this is Secrets of Mental Math put out by The Great Courses. The same lecturer published out a very good book on the subject as well.

Of course, if you want to go old school, then it's hard to beat the utility of memorizing logarithm tables...

Grab the book Speaking Clearly from Amazon, it's only a few dollars used and it's full of very specific exercises. I have a copy and it's great.

Also, get yourself a cheap mic and start recording yourself every day. The fine folks over at /r/recordthis would be happy to give the recordings a listen and offer further advice, a number of them are voiceover pros. There's even a monthly sticky post with practice material.

http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280
This book is absolutely amazing! CGPGrey strongly recommended it saying it changed his procrastination habits and made him a better person

This book is absolutely amazing, and I think it would help you!
It says Numbers and seems like its for math only. Nope! It teaches learning skills!

https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Numbers-Science-Flunked-Algebra/dp/039916524X

There is a book called Home Comforts that is pretty much the bible of home care. I highly recommend it as a really solid starting point; I read through it when I was young and on my own for the first time and really found it invaluable.

For me the overwhelming feeling was tied into a fear of failure. I was subconsciously afraid that I would do something wrong and I wouldn't be successful. I had always been driven to succeed instead of driven to learn.

Once I realize this and that failure is an integral part of learning, I started accepting failure. It really helped to change my entire mindset and approach to learning. I still have a really long way to learning how to learn (late in life) but I am far better off.

I also realized my reading level was not as high as it should have been. If you find that is the case:

https://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Rapid-Reading-Peter-Kump/dp/073520019X

This book is THE book for improving your reading speed. It is a speed reading book, but if nothing else it will teach you something about your reading ability and very basic ways to improve it, without having to go "full speed reading."

There's a Hanon book of exercises, I used it when I was taking lessons. It will help primarily with dexterity, but it can help you learn to read music as well.

edit: http://www.amazon.com/Hanon-Exercises-Acquirement-Independence-Schirmers/dp/0793525446

cheap, worth it.

I had great success with some of the advice in this book:

Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming https://www.amazon.com/dp/034537410X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_t-8WAbXJAM1DX

Check the “Learn to Learn” course I’m Coursera. One of the instructors is an author of books that are related to improve learning of science subjects. The course link is: Learn to Learn. One of the books is A mind for Numbers. I really recommend you to do this course or read the book. If it makes it easier, get the audiobook. Audible has 1 month trial that you can use.

This is a crucial skill if you intend to do anything with real complexity in the future. Develop a few good habits and you'll use them for the rest of your career. Focus first on the process and then buy tools to help you maintain the process.

http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280

I use "Things" to organize my life, but there are loads of free tools out there.

There is no internet outside of Reddit. What is this blue text you posted!?

tl;dr I <3 xkcd, just wish I could draw better.

I did want to point out that at one time I asked an art instructor at my college what I could do to get better at drawing and she recommended this book. I bought it, did two lessons and was able to draw what it wanted me to draw but I never finished the book. I really enjoyed it, but life got in the way.

Edit: fixed my lack of spelling.

Yes, I see. Fair enough.

Try these:

/r/mentat (disclaimer: I'm a mod. And the only person who posts. :))

and

The Power of Habit

and

The Talent Code

If you haven't read it already, Stephen King's book On Writing offers a lot of advice. Some of it's interesting, some of it is... odd, but there are some good pointers in there. It's a decent book, as well.

Well, practice, obviously. But also: this book. It's aimed at people with no starting drawing abiliity, but I found it was great for learning to draw more realistically.

You can try Getting Things Done, which is a methodology as well as a book describing the methodology. It revolves around a very simple idea: get everything you have to deal with organized in a systematic way and off your mind by putting it on an appropriate list. Then when you have free time, you consult the list and carry out a task as appropriate. The most important aspect is that you can only be productive if you are not thinking about all the stuff you have to do, which is why it's important to write it all down and categorize it. This way you don't worry if you've forgotten something.

The details are only marginally more complicated: there are several lists with different categories and a strict procedure that ensures that you are getting through them. But it's very simple and doesn't require any special skills or equipment.

The book The Secrets of Mental Math has some great tricks in it to help you along.

Have a look at this book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intelligent-Investor-Benjamin-Graham/dp/0060555661/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300704487&sr=8-1. It is written by the guy who taught Warren Buffet to invest and mostly covers the general approach and mechanics of investing in fundamentals. It's the bible of personal investing. I would check out the links other redditors provided for the very basics, then read this book to understand the overarching concepts. Good luck!

1.) This, by the end of three weeks my reading speed increased by about 100 wpm. The cliff notes is to basically use your index finger or pen to mark where you are on the page (that increased my wpm by about 50 wpm) the rest was just practice/patience.

2.) This one helped me to read more efficiently.

Try this:
https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Numbers-Science-Flunked-Algebra/dp/039916524X

Really helped me a lot. Great book not just for learning math, but how learning works in general.

If you can't buy it just find a PDF from a torrent site or something like that

Would recommend this book very highly, I think it might be just the kind of thing that will help you. I consider myself to be fairly decent at math, and even then this book has made a world of difference.

this book was kinda like the engineering bible when I was in school. Explains things in an easy to understand manner:

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/0521370957/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1426750522&sr=8-2&keywords=the+art+of+electronics

The course teacher also has a companion book: A Mind for Numbers that is a great reference too.

Even if you aren't a fan of King's work, this is the single best place to start for anyone who fancies writing. See here.

Read that book. It's only $5 on Kindle (just download free reader for PC/Mac/iPhone/Android if you don't own Kindle).

At the age of 23, with the drawing skill of the average five year old, I decided that I wanted to start learning to draw. A friend / roommate of mine had a book titled Drawing on the right side of the brain, which he swore up and down is the best text for beginners. Basically, if you go through the excersizes, you will learn to be able to draw.

I made it through the book, and I can now draw decently. I highly reccommend it.

Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:

Amazon Smile Link: ZBOX


|Country|Link|
|:-----------|:------------|
|UK|amazon.co.uk|
|Spain|amazon.es|
|Canada|amazon.ca|
|Italy|amazon.it|




This bot is currently in testing so let me know what you think by voting (or commenting). The thread for feature requests can be found here.

Buy the Hanon book, it's a really good exercise/method book for 6 dollars. Every pianist has a copy of this.

If you've got the time consider reading The Intelligent Investor.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060555661/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0060155477&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1J2N6M1MFGN3E805691P

this book is all you need. guaranteed. but you have to ACTUALLY do the exercises and keep up with it, you'll see noticeable improvements within a week if you do the exercises everyday...gotta put in the work

http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Rapid-Reading-Peter-Kump/dp/073520019X

Asked myself the same question this morning. I found this book is supposed to be a good start.

http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Mental-Math-Mathemagicians-Calculation/dp/0307338401

I've heard good things about Peter Kump's Breakthrough Rapid Reading.

Here is the best way to do it at minimal cost (IMO) -

• Setup paid accounts for Hulu Plus and Netflix. This will replace your DVR/On-Demand content.
  

• Get a streaming device, the simplest way is to get a smart TV with Netflix and Hulu built-in or Xbox One/360 will work. I suggest against using A Playstation3/4 as I do know PS3/PS4 uses Cinavia, which will disable playback some of downloaded video files. There are many options for this. From Roku to Amazon Fire, etc. I personally use a ZBOX PC running XBMC
  
  

• Get an HD antenna. Check Amazon/Newegg and get yourself a quality HD antenna. This may cost you up to $100, but this is how you are going to watch local news and sports. Typically you will pull in local ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX affiliates.
  

• If you watch sports (NFL/MLB/NHL/NBA) You may need to pay for that content if it is not broadcast in your local markets.
  
• I'll add some additional detail in an edit soon. I'm leaving work...

Read the book "A mind for numbers" by Barbara Oakley and take the course "learning how to learn"

Link to course:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn

Link to book:
https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Numbers-Science-Flunked-Algebra/dp/039916524X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=a+mind+for+numbers&qid=1570212770&sr=8-1


Edit: if I remember correctly, you don't have to pay for the course if you're not able to. Hope this helps you :)

Check this book out!

It absolutely changed my mental math ability. Arthur Benjamin also has videos all over the Internet with some quick mental math tricks.

Getting Things Done

It took me years of seeing people recommend this book over and over before I picked up a copy and read it. I wish I'd done it sooner. I even got my boss to pay for a copy to keep at work, and bought a copy for my Kindle for home.

Getting into the GTD "groove" takes a while - losing old habits and forming new ones always does - but even if you implement his plan halfway and imperfectly, you'll be twice as organized and productive as you are now.

This book used to be/still is what people swear by.

This should NOT be the first book you buy and open, it is too intense to start with. However, it should be something you look at in your quest to understand it all.

Getting Things Done also /r/gtd

http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321368960&sr=8-1

There's also an audiobook of it which is essentially a recording of one of his public events going over the book.

Going to make a suggestion to read Getting Things Done.

Probably Getting Things Done.

Getting Things Done

start by reading Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming.

Here are the books I had in mind when I wrote that, but lacked the time to look up:

http://www.amazon.com/Evelyn-Seven-Day-Reading-Learning-Program/dp/B000M7ZCC2/ref=sr_1_3

http://www.amazon.com/Remember-Everything-You-Read-Learning/dp/0380715775/ref=sr_1_1

http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Rapid-Reading-Peter-Kump/dp/073520019X/ref=sr_1_2

What about New Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain, will that do?

BAM

http://www.amazon.ca/The-Drawing-Right-Side-Brain/dp/0874774241

David Allen - GTD

You don't even have to follow his processes, the ideas alone are worth the read.

A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra) by Barbara Oakley https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Numbers-Science-Flunked-Algebra/dp/039916524X

Make/build/cook something for her. Not only will it cheer her up, the act of doing it will be therapeutic for you.

Consider getting professional help or medication if your depression is as bad as it sounds. At the very least consider reading (and acting on the advice of) a book such as this one.

I foundthis book on how to learn math when you sick with numbers. I haven't read it so I can't review it, I just know of it.

This very method is discussed in-depth in Feeling Good. Excellent book for anyone suffering from depression or anxiety.