Studying Smart – The Tony Buzan Way

Attended a talk in college yesterday on study techniques, or more precisely “The Tony Buzan Way” using mind maps. When signed up, didn’t expect that the speaker would be Tony Buzan himself. But he was personally present to present the talk.

If you haven’t already know, Tony Buzan is first and foremost the creator/pioneer of mind maps. He’s also world renown as a guru of mental literacy techniques, author of over 100 books, founder of the Mind Sports Olympiad, World Memory Championships, etc. Yup, its a lot about the brains.

During the talk, one of the things that he spoke about was on the revolution of the human mind. It started 10,000 years ago with the agrarian age, proceeded by the industrial age and then the information age that we’ve all came to know.

And what the information age brought was information overload. It soon didn’t matter how much you know, because information is free flow; people can obtain it easily if they really want it. And hence it became a race of who can apply the knowledge the base. It’s the knowledge era. It’s not about what you know, but what you do with what you know…. You know?

Tony didn’t stop there. He somewhat predicted that the next (or maybe the current) age is the age of intelligence. In this age, it’s about “managing the manager of the knowledge”. Which means, what will matter next is how well you manage your brain – how well you think, remember, and coordinate yourself.

And the way to stay ahead and manage your brain well is to invest in intellectual capital. Make your brain your hobby. This may include:

• Developing mental operations from various available source
• Healthy body = healthy mind
• Train memory
• Use mind maps to learn
• Train creativity
• Copy from the best and improve

It’s difficult to describe what’s this all about. But here’s a recommendation – read this book.

“Use Your Head” by Tony B himself. I’ve read it and it help quite a lot in understanding the brain and how it functions. The book is not thick, can be done reading in a day or two. Check your school library, it should be there.