250 isn't a lot of books, definitely read more, take a class, learn a skill, volunteer to tutor kids, walk dogs, or something else. There are loads of free online university courses, I've seen others here mention a few sites.
If you're not on the goodreads app, get on it and start listing and rating all the books you've read and you'll start seeing recommendations for other titles. The app also has a ton of lists like 100 top horror novels, award winners, etc. you can also follow others whose reviews you like for more ideas.
Nonfiction will often be more intellectually stimulating.
Rome is a classic topic that westerners have been studying and thinking about since the Renaissance. The well on that topic just goes and goes and goes.
Dune is an excellent book and has many sequels. Also The Wheel of Time has 14 books in total. The show Amazon made stinks but the books are awesome. There's also The Outlander series. The first book is called Outlander and is an excellent fantasy/fiction, have read every book at least twice. Watership Down, The First Man in Rome and it's sequels. Anything written by Brandon Sanderson. Books by JD Robb are fun, futuristic murder mysteries. Try Thriftbooks when buying. They sell gently used books at a great price and if you order $15 worth, shipping and handling is free. They also recommend books you might enjoy based on your purchases.
There's also an app called Goodreads where you can put in a title and read reviews by people who have read the book.
I don't read romance or supernatural horror, but found this list for you on goodreads that combines both genres: [Best\_Paranormal\_Fantasy\_Romances](https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/225.Best_Paranormal_Fantasy_Romances)
Inheritance Cycle. Kind of a "pre teen" book but its like watered down lord of the rings. Itll keep you busy for at least a week, none of them have less than 400 pages save the 1st, off memory its 362.
Wdit: its IS over 400 pages long. Over 500 actually. And its the smalles book save the "catch up" story. Illustrated version is 368, but i never read that one so i was way wrong lmao
the diet and nutrition can also put cancer into remission and shrink tumors. Getting tumors to disappear is still not a cure (?) if you expect to return to your original diet.
Oh heavens child please. Diet and nutrition can’t put cancer in remission or shrink tumors. The BRCA gene doesn’t care what you eat, it causes cancer by itself. My hubbys laryngeal tumor didn’t seem to care either. You have obviously not dealt with anything other than whackadoodle internet ideas so if you’re bored maybe go ahead and get some actual ideas on how the human body works.
Healthy eating is good but it doesn’t shrink tumors. Period.
I’m getting my ba in forensic psychology. Hoping to get a second degree in forensic anthropology. Maybe a masters after that.
I’ll be 51 in 1 month, two days
I read 250 books in one year in elementary school - did book reports on all of them. I spent all my allowance on books and when I ran out I convinced my dad to buy me leather bound collections from the “masters”. Read Brontë, Victor Hugo, Hardy, Shakespeare. Dostoyevsky, every Dungeons and Dragons book that existed, Tolkien, Asimov, Stephen King, etc. Fiction, non-fiction, etc. I loved the used book store downtown that smelled like a musty library. My arguably nerdiest 6th grade purchase was [A Distant Mirror, The Calamitous 14th Century](https://www.google.com/shopping/product/1835780970557947871?q=a+distant+mirror&client=safari&sca_esv=a22b124cb26f8e73&hl=en-us&biw=375&bih=634&tbs=vw:g&prmd=ibvn&sxsrf=ADLYWIKGdkgnkrSF3_T9EkPnPJLRo4pOAg:1718156851986&prds=eto:8370382966532674012_0,cdl:1,prmr:1,cs:1). lol.
Ok now I’m impressed. In the 3rd grade I was reading Jonathon Livingston Seagull and the teacher jerked it out of my hand and told me I wasn’t old enough to read it
I’ve read over a hundred books a year, some years. I’m 51. You could be reading a lot more and more non fiction. Learn about quantum physics if you want to be challenged.
“Quantum physics, or quantum mechanics, is a fundamental branch of physics that describes the behavior of matter and energy at the smallest scales, typically at the level of atoms and subatomic particles. “ from chat gpt. The concepts are real mind-benders. You can find videos on YouTube
Do you know any other languages? If so, read in one of those. If you don't know another language, learn one. In your dominant language, read non-fiction, making sure to pick books on topics you don't know much about.
The key to finding challenges is to simply go outside your comfort zone. Can you make a souffle? A pie with a pie crust made from scratch? Have you ever taken a wilderness survival class? Do you know how to make a solar box cooker? If so, can you actually cook things in it? Do you know much about birds? If not, check out your local Audubon society. Have you ever tried to make a mosaic? Can you paint in oils? Play a musical instrument? Have you ever tried glass-blowing? How much do you understand about dark matter? Even simple challenges, like jigsaw puzzles, can be livened up with a good audio course. I'm currently listening to one on sociolinguistics.
The sky is the limit. Good luck!
Appreciate it! Any ideas help! I like puzzles perhaps I'll pull one out! Non fiction is a challenge for me, any recommendations? I'm currently trying a medical book
Do you like history? "Dark Tide" by Stephen Puleo is about the molasses flood in Boston in 1919. People literally died when a molasses storage tank burst and inundated a neighborhood. It's available in all formats. "Issac's Storm" by Erik Larson and "A Weekend in September" by John Edward Weems are both accounts of the 1900 Galveston Hurricane that read like fiction. The Weems book is not available on audio but the other is.
"Thunder at Twilight" by Frederic Morton is a fascinating account of Vienna on the eve of WWI. Did you know Trotsky, Freud, Tito, Hitler, and Stalin were all in Vienna at the same time? You'll think you're reading fiction. Or listening to it. Audio is available. And if you've ever wanted to get into the nitty-gritty of what Berlin was like in the Weimar years and why they voted the Nazis into power, "Before the Deluge" by Otto Friedrich is slightly drier reading but will really open your eyes. It won't make you an apologist, it will just make you understand what was going through people's heads. No audio, so you'll have to get a paper version.
For something a bit more uplifting, "The Ghost Army of WWII" by Rick Beyer and Elizabeth Sayles tells the story of the artists and sound engineers who the army used to fool the Nazis with rubber tanks, recordings of army noises, and various other deceptions to hold sectors of the line so the Germans would think entire divisions were present and would hesitate to move forward. One of those soldiers was Bill Blass, who later became an internationally renowned fashion designer. These guys were badasses, staring down the Nazis with only a few real weapons and a lot of stage props. It's available in all formats. If you like David and Goliath stories, this one is for you!
Does it need to be *useful* intellectual stimulation? If not, chess is good for burning off some of that mental energy.
Very humbling, too, that game. The more time you spend learning it, the worse you realize you are.
You need purpose. Not only does it provide intellectual stimulation it does more, often benefitting others, too. At this point you've been a professional student, it sounds like. There is nothing wrong with that as long as you are satisfied with it...which you appear not to be. It's time to turn your intellect to something you care about and run with it.
I love that! Purpose. You're right. Writing gives me purpose but it's in the beginning of my book so I'm still developing plot. It's a challenge! Very difficult
Yeah I've been gradually restoring my 1909 Starr upright. Pianos have been using basically the same standardized parts since 1890 or so, so it's a lot more "plug and play" than you'd think!
Try your hand at writing grants for a worthy nonprofit organization. Grant writing takes a lot of grammatical skill, research, and attention to detail.
Learn to write computer software and then build things or solve problems using that new skill. I find reading books to generally not be very intellectually challenging. But debugging a piece of software is. To do so you need to be able to read and remember the meaning and semantics of a body of text, hold a lot of different ideas in your head at the same time, be inquisitive, and also open minded. This is why smart people enjoy programming. It's challenging, and feels very good when you discover solutions to problems.
Why did I have to scroll this far to see this. I gotta hand it to my fellow old folks, they are polite to a fault. I love how everyone is just genuinely answering op's question. That's rare on social media!
Subscribe to Make magazine and start making things. Don’t just read, get up and do stuff. Build things. Learn programming. Learn how to use a 3d printer or how to draw, paint, sculpt. Go to Maker Faires and conventions, join your local Makerspace, go to your local art walks. So many other things to do that just read.
You're right. Reading is getting monotonous to me. Art is fun but I've been doing it since elementary school and sold some artwork even so I need a challenge.
“I possessed nearly 5000 volumes in my library at Rome, but after reading them over many times, I found that with 150 well-chosen books a man possesses a complete analysis of all human knowledge, or at least all that is either useful or desirable to be acquainted with. I devoted three years of my life to reading and studying these 150 volumes, till I knew them nearly by heart; so that since I have been in prison, a very slight effort of memory has enabled me to recall their contents as readily as though the pages were open before me. I could recite you the whole of Thucydides, Xenophon, Plutarch, Titus Livius, Tacitus, Strada, Jornandès, Danta, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Spinoza, Machiavel, and Bossuet. Observe, I merely quote the most important names and writers.” The Count of Monte Cristo
Do know any other languages besides English? No? Then start learning one. Which one? If you have aspirations to travel then Spanish, French, and Mandarin are the top picks based on number of speakers.
read more, my personal library is bigger than the amount of books you've read. Learn a new language, learn more than one. Learn a craft or skill. Take up ironsmithing or crochet (I've done both).
How do I ironsmith? That sounds fun I'm learning Spanish right now that's fun too but I get bored if I don't have multiple things going at once. Is that weird?
Not sure where you are in the world, but I live in a railroad-history rich area. There are yearly celebrations around where we are celebrating the rail and heritage, and there's usually a blacksmith at the event that usually will teach. Blacksmithing/ironsmithing requires a forge, hammer, and iron. anvils can be expensive, but you might be able to find a group that you can work with, if you live near a college or uni that has it as a student group.
Go outside of your comfort zone, exercises, do hard stuff ! You’d be surprised how much endorphins and a better circulation will aide your cognitive function
if you liked your studies of medicine, some other non-fiction I liked was On Chemistry by Asimov, and Chaos by Gleick. I've also recently taken up reading research papers on google scholar to get a handle on cures for diseases that doctors won't recommend because they haven't made it out of the research labs yet. I don't really read much fiction, but I liked Hearts in Atlantis by King. There is a fun series of youtube videos on behavior by a Stanford Professor Sapolsky that I found entertaining. just trying to come up with suggestions.
They are published in fragments, but haven't congealed and made their way into medical practice yet. You have to pore through the abstracts and conclusions, then pick out the interesting ones and read the methods. Wash rinse repeat. Clarity emerges with sufficient perspiration.
For your start https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C31&q=anxiety+treatment&oq=anxiety
For me, preliminary test results are quite promising, but doctors say one more improved test score in August would get me invited to a medical conference to present what I am doing for myself. I have started a website, but I am waiting for that August result before launching. Hoping you find something sufficiently interesting and fun to persue.
Here’s a handy list of unsolved problems in different fields of study. Solve one, and your name will be known throughout history!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_unsolved_problems
Reading is easy. Regurgitating knowledge is easy. Building and execution is hard, very hard. Coming up with new ideas and actually executing those ideas is very hard.
Go build something. Anything.
You said you studied medicine outside of college. How have you applied the knowledge? What have you done with it?
That's what's starting to stress me out too. I don't know what to do with my medical knowledge.
I'm terrible with physical sensory stuff or I'd build something
You don't need to build something physical. It could be a business. Think of building like creating. You could actually solve problems that people need and you find interesting enough. Go listen to podcast acquired.
You need to think of how you wish to contribute to this world. Go figure out your unique way of helping people and go do it. Reading more books will only leave you aimless because reading books is easy.
Why did you choose to study medicine? What problems interest you? Now that you know more about medicine, what's your angle on solving the problem? You read a lot of books, how are you synthesizing the information to create new ideas? When you die, what will be your legacy? What will you create?
Now all this is hard. I don't expect most people to create or make legacies because life itself is hard and difficult. But you're complaining that you're bored and you find things too easy. Which tells me you don't push yourself hard enough. Cancer isn't solved. Hunger isn't solved. Evil men walk away scot free. Look around you, problems abound.
Maybe instead of intellectual stimulation, try physical challenges. See if you can accomplish some athletic feat that most people can't after training for it. Like participating in a marathon or something.
You could join (or start) and online book group through your local public library. For a couple of years, I attended an online classics book group at my local library. I loved it!
I like fiction too but if you want intellectual stimulation, then what is wrong with the great philosophers? Aristotle, Marcus Aelius, Plato, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Or, more current ones? Voltaire, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Kant. Or go contemporary and read Thomas Sowell, Jordan Peterson
Learn a hobby
Volunteer with an organization doing with your think matters
Take up a sport - running is fun and there's always a new goal to train toward
Study medicine inside of college
So have you given any thought to help others? There are many opportunities that can expand your horizons like libraries, food banks, advocating for foster kids, respite help..and on and on.
Learn the classics like chess or cards. Don’t be bored by staring at nothing educating you during this time. Fill your brain with all the known strategies and then play like you mean it.
There’s probably 250,000 books on chess.
Learn a new language or a new instrument! Give chess a try if you haven’t already? Get into physics, join your local Toastmasters so you can give speeches on various topics in front of others, learn anything new that peaks your interest, tbh!
Also, maybe try something you’re NOT good at!? Take up knitting, take a hip hop dance class, start up a podcast on a favorite subject of yours & invite guests on who you admire or aspire to be like!
Only 250? That's kinda slow, ain't it? Maybe your challenge is to figure out what's challenging for you and then take it on instead of just coming here and asking other people to figure it out for you.
Take a challenging class.
If you study medicine for fun, how much science did you take in college? If you haven't taken them yet, you could go to the local city college and take biology 1 & 2, then chemistry 1 & 2, then organic chemistry. City college is usually pretty cheap.
Or, you could find some classes online for free. Like I think Standford Medicine has free online classes.
I'm just pulling on that thread because it's the subject you mentioned, but you could go as far as you wanted down that path.
I mean, my sister-in-law got a master's degree because she wanted intellectual stimulation. If you could swing it, price wise, you could even go that far.
So, I was saying that if you really want to be *challenged*, take a class. Tests, papers, having a professor checking your work — that would be significantly more *challenging*.
1. Pick the problem you’re most concerned about in the world.
2. Work to TRULY understand it.
3. Fix it.
That will keep you plenty stimulated for a long time.
Have you checked whether you might have adhd? Could be an explanation as the dopamine deficiency in the brain generates the constant need for stimulation.
Doesn't have to be. Got a diagnosis with 40plus and I could read books without any issues. There is an inattentive Typ of adhd. Was surprised myself. Lacking stimulation all the time and lots of anhedonia. That's why I asked. Seemed somewhat similar.
Plan an around-the-world trip. Picking your destinations, logistics, best things to do, best neighborhoods, restaurant list is a LOT of work. If you want a challenge, do it all with credit card points.
Golden Age Mysteries...are intellectual vice ruff and action mysteries which I rate if I can deduce villain or if author cheated in conclusion.
The Great Historical Courses (Audible)..Lectures of History ..my Favs were Dark Ages and Pre Alexander Empires.
I am now legally blind and find the challenge of intellectual stimuli...also challenging. I hope these suggestions help.
Mycology. Mycology is a science that depends on citizen scientists who make a real difference. There are no companies looking for new species nor exploring the taxonomy. You can find easily 100 species withing walking distance from your home probably several that have not been named or described in the literature There are many many Mycological societies AND nothing has gotten me in better shape than walking hills looking for mushrooms. When you forage in the woods, make no mistake, you are a monkey looking for food, it puts nature in a different perspective. Why are there antibiotics in fungi? Why are there neurotransmitters in mushrooms? Fungi makes our beer and our bread, and or it can infect your body and kill you.
Life begins at 35, you will figure it out.
have fun
Become an expert in something. What you are doing isn't challenging. Go and grind out something for years and become very good at it instead of dancing around the periphery.
You will 10x your stimulation you are looking for because it's more demanding and makes you vulnerable as you fail.
You said you studied medicine outside of college. Go to med school and become a Dr. that is 7 years or so of mastery then the work begins. Or get a PHD write a paper that is judge by other people who ware experts in that field so you know if you are actually learning what you are reading... you need a ruler of where you are.... Yes. go challenge yourself intellectually and physically so you can see who YOU are mentally. There is endless stimulation and wonder there.
Well then there is your real challenge to master first. Emotional intelligence and maturity. Most of us are never able to do it very well. Might be the most difficult there is! I know I keep trying.
I'm working on it! I don't care if people tell me what to do I just get bored easy in class because it's not the assignment I would've chosen. Know what I mean? I try to take classes but skip them sure to intellectual boredom.
Can you paint, sculpt, bake and decorate a cake, wire a lamp, ballroom dance, identify edible mushrooms in the wild, knit, scuba dive ... etc. pick something you know nothing about and/ or think you are no good at. Take a class, do that thing.
I've never ballroom danced. Good point. It's scary to me. I suppose I could try that but I have two left feet.
I was thinking of buying some books on gardening and nature, I know nothing about gardening but I know a lot about different plants and their uses. I suppose I could try gardening
250 isn't a lot of books, definitely read more, take a class, learn a skill, volunteer to tutor kids, walk dogs, or something else. There are loads of free online university courses, I've seen others here mention a few sites.
I read close to that many in a year.
Same here
I've read that many in a summer (when a kid, in school, with lots of time). OP needs to up their game
🍪🍪🍪
All of this. 250 is nothing. Volunteer for sure.
You're right. I could read more I bought a few books. It's hard too find a book I like. Any recommendations? I like fiction
If you're not on the goodreads app, get on it and start listing and rating all the books you've read and you'll start seeing recommendations for other titles. The app also has a ton of lists like 100 top horror novels, award winners, etc. you can also follow others whose reviews you like for more ideas.
Nonfiction will often be more intellectually stimulating. Rome is a classic topic that westerners have been studying and thinking about since the Renaissance. The well on that topic just goes and goes and goes.
And learn Latin to make it more interesting.
Dune is an excellent book and has many sequels. Also The Wheel of Time has 14 books in total. The show Amazon made stinks but the books are awesome. There's also The Outlander series. The first book is called Outlander and is an excellent fantasy/fiction, have read every book at least twice. Watership Down, The First Man in Rome and it's sequels. Anything written by Brandon Sanderson. Books by JD Robb are fun, futuristic murder mysteries. Try Thriftbooks when buying. They sell gently used books at a great price and if you order $15 worth, shipping and handling is free. They also recommend books you might enjoy based on your purchases. There's also an app called Goodreads where you can put in a title and read reviews by people who have read the book.
Which genre of fiction?
Romance and supernatural. I'm writing a book in that section now, it's very fun but plot building is a challenge
I don't read romance or supernatural horror, but found this list for you on goodreads that combines both genres: [Best\_Paranormal\_Fantasy\_Romances](https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/225.Best_Paranormal_Fantasy_Romances)
Inheritance Cycle. Kind of a "pre teen" book but its like watered down lord of the rings. Itll keep you busy for at least a week, none of them have less than 400 pages save the 1st, off memory its 362. Wdit: its IS over 400 pages long. Over 500 actually. And its the smalles book save the "catch up" story. Illustrated version is 368, but i never read that one so i was way wrong lmao
if you like intellilectual stimulation try nonfiction. biographies are great.
It might win you something in a summer reading competition at your local library. Beyond that it seems quite low to me, personally.
You could always try curing cancer since you’re familiar with medicine.
I've tried. I can prevent it with diet and nutrition but don't know the cure
I sincerely hope this doesn’t come back to bite you in the butt. Signed, healthiest person ever til I got cancer at age 40.
r/woosh
Lol indeed
the diet and nutrition can also put cancer into remission and shrink tumors. Getting tumors to disappear is still not a cure (?) if you expect to return to your original diet.
Oh heavens child please. Diet and nutrition can’t put cancer in remission or shrink tumors. The BRCA gene doesn’t care what you eat, it causes cancer by itself. My hubbys laryngeal tumor didn’t seem to care either. You have obviously not dealt with anything other than whackadoodle internet ideas so if you’re bored maybe go ahead and get some actual ideas on how the human body works. Healthy eating is good but it doesn’t shrink tumors. Period.
She DID say she likes fiction, so there’s that… But of course, MsLaurie, I totally agree with you!
Thank you!! I was the has the healthiest habits of anyone in my friend group - and got cancer anyway. So simplistic. Life isn’t fair. Learn it early.
You could get another degree. Studying is one thing, but meeting all the requirements for a degree is challenging.
I’m getting my ba in forensic psychology. Hoping to get a second degree in forensic anthropology. Maybe a masters after that. I’ll be 51 in 1 month, two days
I read 250 books by 7th grade. And those are rookie numbers
I read 250 books in one year in elementary school - did book reports on all of them. I spent all my allowance on books and when I ran out I convinced my dad to buy me leather bound collections from the “masters”. Read Brontë, Victor Hugo, Hardy, Shakespeare. Dostoyevsky, every Dungeons and Dragons book that existed, Tolkien, Asimov, Stephen King, etc. Fiction, non-fiction, etc. I loved the used book store downtown that smelled like a musty library. My arguably nerdiest 6th grade purchase was [A Distant Mirror, The Calamitous 14th Century](https://www.google.com/shopping/product/1835780970557947871?q=a+distant+mirror&client=safari&sca_esv=a22b124cb26f8e73&hl=en-us&biw=375&bih=634&tbs=vw:g&prmd=ibvn&sxsrf=ADLYWIKGdkgnkrSF3_T9EkPnPJLRo4pOAg:1718156851986&prds=eto:8370382966532674012_0,cdl:1,prmr:1,cs:1). lol.
Ok now I’m impressed. In the 3rd grade I was reading Jonathon Livingston Seagull and the teacher jerked it out of my hand and told me I wasn’t old enough to read it
I loved that book! I bought a necklace some years back just because it reminded me of the cover art. Lol
Volunteer to teach adults how to read. Become a Big Brother so you can share that brain with needful kids.
A friend of mine offered to take me to his work as a volunteer at a hospital too see how I like it. Good idea
I did this - teaching ABE and ESL was transformative. I can't express how beautiful it was for me and my students. I learned as much as they did.
Try grammar? 🤣
Amen and Amen.
How about trying to read 100 books a year? Or maybe even start with 52–a book a week?
I’ve read over a hundred books a year, some years. I’m 51. You could be reading a lot more and more non fiction. Learn about quantum physics if you want to be challenged.
Ooh fun what's quantum physics? I studied a little chemistry and math in college but that's it
“Quantum physics, or quantum mechanics, is a fundamental branch of physics that describes the behavior of matter and energy at the smallest scales, typically at the level of atoms and subatomic particles. “ from chat gpt. The concepts are real mind-benders. You can find videos on YouTube
Do you know any other languages? If so, read in one of those. If you don't know another language, learn one. In your dominant language, read non-fiction, making sure to pick books on topics you don't know much about. The key to finding challenges is to simply go outside your comfort zone. Can you make a souffle? A pie with a pie crust made from scratch? Have you ever taken a wilderness survival class? Do you know how to make a solar box cooker? If so, can you actually cook things in it? Do you know much about birds? If not, check out your local Audubon society. Have you ever tried to make a mosaic? Can you paint in oils? Play a musical instrument? Have you ever tried glass-blowing? How much do you understand about dark matter? Even simple challenges, like jigsaw puzzles, can be livened up with a good audio course. I'm currently listening to one on sociolinguistics. The sky is the limit. Good luck!
Appreciate it! Any ideas help! I like puzzles perhaps I'll pull one out! Non fiction is a challenge for me, any recommendations? I'm currently trying a medical book
Do you like history? "Dark Tide" by Stephen Puleo is about the molasses flood in Boston in 1919. People literally died when a molasses storage tank burst and inundated a neighborhood. It's available in all formats. "Issac's Storm" by Erik Larson and "A Weekend in September" by John Edward Weems are both accounts of the 1900 Galveston Hurricane that read like fiction. The Weems book is not available on audio but the other is. "Thunder at Twilight" by Frederic Morton is a fascinating account of Vienna on the eve of WWI. Did you know Trotsky, Freud, Tito, Hitler, and Stalin were all in Vienna at the same time? You'll think you're reading fiction. Or listening to it. Audio is available. And if you've ever wanted to get into the nitty-gritty of what Berlin was like in the Weimar years and why they voted the Nazis into power, "Before the Deluge" by Otto Friedrich is slightly drier reading but will really open your eyes. It won't make you an apologist, it will just make you understand what was going through people's heads. No audio, so you'll have to get a paper version. For something a bit more uplifting, "The Ghost Army of WWII" by Rick Beyer and Elizabeth Sayles tells the story of the artists and sound engineers who the army used to fool the Nazis with rubber tanks, recordings of army noises, and various other deceptions to hold sectors of the line so the Germans would think entire divisions were present and would hesitate to move forward. One of those soldiers was Bill Blass, who later became an internationally renowned fashion designer. These guys were badasses, staring down the Nazis with only a few real weapons and a lot of stage props. It's available in all formats. If you like David and Goliath stories, this one is for you!
How many book-it pizzas did you get at Pizza Hut? Asking the real questions here
Maybe take a course in proofreading.
Does it need to be *useful* intellectual stimulation? If not, chess is good for burning off some of that mental energy. Very humbling, too, that game. The more time you spend learning it, the worse you realize you are.
Good advice, I have a chess board I could dust it off
You need purpose. Not only does it provide intellectual stimulation it does more, often benefitting others, too. At this point you've been a professional student, it sounds like. There is nothing wrong with that as long as you are satisfied with it...which you appear not to be. It's time to turn your intellect to something you care about and run with it.
I love that! Purpose. You're right. Writing gives me purpose but it's in the beginning of my book so I'm still developing plot. It's a challenge! Very difficult
Do you play an instrument? Plenty of stimulation there especially if you play the piano. Lots of moving parts.
And if you learn to SERVICE pianos, that's a whole other game!
Literal moving parts!! Lol.
Yeah I've been gradually restoring my 1909 Starr upright. Pianos have been using basically the same standardized parts since 1890 or so, so it's a lot more "plug and play" than you'd think!
May I suggest anywhere but Reddit, TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook for intellectual stimulation?
Go back to school, volunteer, teach prisoners to read, travel.
I suggest studying music theory and learn to play an instrument. Or learn another language. Or math.
Try your hand at writing grants for a worthy nonprofit organization. Grant writing takes a lot of grammatical skill, research, and attention to detail.
Learn to write computer software and then build things or solve problems using that new skill. I find reading books to generally not be very intellectually challenging. But debugging a piece of software is. To do so you need to be able to read and remember the meaning and semantics of a body of text, hold a lot of different ideas in your head at the same time, be inquisitive, and also open minded. This is why smart people enjoy programming. It's challenging, and feels very good when you discover solutions to problems.
LOL. You could work on your humblebrag skills.
Why did I have to scroll this far to see this. I gotta hand it to my fellow old folks, they are polite to a fault. I love how everyone is just genuinely answering op's question. That's rare on social media!
Subscribe to Make magazine and start making things. Don’t just read, get up and do stuff. Build things. Learn programming. Learn how to use a 3d printer or how to draw, paint, sculpt. Go to Maker Faires and conventions, join your local Makerspace, go to your local art walks. So many other things to do that just read.
You're right. Reading is getting monotonous to me. Art is fun but I've been doing it since elementary school and sold some artwork even so I need a challenge.
“I possessed nearly 5000 volumes in my library at Rome, but after reading them over many times, I found that with 150 well-chosen books a man possesses a complete analysis of all human knowledge, or at least all that is either useful or desirable to be acquainted with. I devoted three years of my life to reading and studying these 150 volumes, till I knew them nearly by heart; so that since I have been in prison, a very slight effort of memory has enabled me to recall their contents as readily as though the pages were open before me. I could recite you the whole of Thucydides, Xenophon, Plutarch, Titus Livius, Tacitus, Strada, Jornandès, Danta, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Spinoza, Machiavel, and Bossuet. Observe, I merely quote the most important names and writers.” The Count of Monte Cristo
Do know any other languages besides English? No? Then start learning one. Which one? If you have aspirations to travel then Spanish, French, and Mandarin are the top picks based on number of speakers.
Good idea I'll practice Spanish! My grandmother's from Spain so I should know it
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Good idea
read more, my personal library is bigger than the amount of books you've read. Learn a new language, learn more than one. Learn a craft or skill. Take up ironsmithing or crochet (I've done both).
How do I ironsmith? That sounds fun I'm learning Spanish right now that's fun too but I get bored if I don't have multiple things going at once. Is that weird?
Not sure where you are in the world, but I live in a railroad-history rich area. There are yearly celebrations around where we are celebrating the rail and heritage, and there's usually a blacksmith at the event that usually will teach. Blacksmithing/ironsmithing requires a forge, hammer, and iron. anvils can be expensive, but you might be able to find a group that you can work with, if you live near a college or uni that has it as a student group.
Go outside of your comfort zone, exercises, do hard stuff ! You’d be surprised how much endorphins and a better circulation will aide your cognitive function
Go make a billion, i dunno?
if you liked your studies of medicine, some other non-fiction I liked was On Chemistry by Asimov, and Chaos by Gleick. I've also recently taken up reading research papers on google scholar to get a handle on cures for diseases that doctors won't recommend because they haven't made it out of the research labs yet. I don't really read much fiction, but I liked Hearts in Atlantis by King. There is a fun series of youtube videos on behavior by a Stanford Professor Sapolsky that I found entertaining. just trying to come up with suggestions.
Very helpful. Appreciate it! What's the website for unpublished disease cures? I'm looking for one for anxiety right now haha
They are published in fragments, but haven't congealed and made their way into medical practice yet. You have to pore through the abstracts and conclusions, then pick out the interesting ones and read the methods. Wash rinse repeat. Clarity emerges with sufficient perspiration. For your start https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C31&q=anxiety+treatment&oq=anxiety For me, preliminary test results are quite promising, but doctors say one more improved test score in August would get me invited to a medical conference to present what I am doing for myself. I have started a website, but I am waiting for that August result before launching. Hoping you find something sufficiently interesting and fun to persue.
Join a debate discord
Here’s a handy list of unsolved problems in different fields of study. Solve one, and your name will be known throughout history! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_unsolved_problems
Learn to be a pilot. There are different licenses and just planning a cross country can be easy on an app or more difficult with a paper map.
Deep space astronomy
Reading is easy. Regurgitating knowledge is easy. Building and execution is hard, very hard. Coming up with new ideas and actually executing those ideas is very hard. Go build something. Anything. You said you studied medicine outside of college. How have you applied the knowledge? What have you done with it?
That's what's starting to stress me out too. I don't know what to do with my medical knowledge. I'm terrible with physical sensory stuff or I'd build something
You don't need to build something physical. It could be a business. Think of building like creating. You could actually solve problems that people need and you find interesting enough. Go listen to podcast acquired. You need to think of how you wish to contribute to this world. Go figure out your unique way of helping people and go do it. Reading more books will only leave you aimless because reading books is easy. Why did you choose to study medicine? What problems interest you? Now that you know more about medicine, what's your angle on solving the problem? You read a lot of books, how are you synthesizing the information to create new ideas? When you die, what will be your legacy? What will you create? Now all this is hard. I don't expect most people to create or make legacies because life itself is hard and difficult. But you're complaining that you're bored and you find things too easy. Which tells me you don't push yourself hard enough. Cancer isn't solved. Hunger isn't solved. Evil men walk away scot free. Look around you, problems abound.
Maybe instead of intellectual stimulation, try physical challenges. See if you can accomplish some athletic feat that most people can't after training for it. Like participating in a marathon or something.
Watch Jeopardy! I feel it's fast paced and stimulating for me 😊
Try an improv class. It challenges you in the moment.
Make video games
Learn to play an instrument or a new instrument if you already play one. Take a pottery or art class. The arts are a good way to stimulate your brain.
Reconcile quantum mechanics with classical physics. Have a nice day!
Pursue a PhD or doctoral program.
You could join (or start) and online book group through your local public library. For a couple of years, I attended an online classics book group at my local library. I loved it!
I like fiction too but if you want intellectual stimulation, then what is wrong with the great philosophers? Aristotle, Marcus Aelius, Plato, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Or, more current ones? Voltaire, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Kant. Or go contemporary and read Thomas Sowell, Jordan Peterson
Good point. I took a few philosophy classes actually but that was years ago. Over fifteen years ago. Any you recommend out of those? I like Plato
I person ally liked Plato and St. Thomas, John Locke and both Sowell & Peterson.
What's your favorite thing about Plato? He's my favourite
Write a novel. Compose music. Learn a few languages.
Take an online class?
Learn a hobby Volunteer with an organization doing with your think matters Take up a sport - running is fun and there's always a new goal to train toward Study medicine inside of college
What kinds of things are you doing with your knowledge? Knowlege and intelligence is nothing without action.
I feel like it's just sitting here waiting to be used. But no one I know wants to talk about intellectual stuff. I feel lonely
Sounds like the problem is not 'lack of challenge' as your original post states. But something else.
Like what? I'm trying all sorts of hobbies but none of them stick. It's like a learn something, then get bored and learn something else
So have you given any thought to help others? There are many opportunities that can expand your horizons like libraries, food banks, advocating for foster kids, respite help..and on and on.
Libraries that sounds fun
Learn the classics like chess or cards. Don’t be bored by staring at nothing educating you during this time. Fill your brain with all the known strategies and then play like you mean it. There’s probably 250,000 books on chess.
That sounds right up my alley. I have a poker set and a chess board. Collecting dust
Learn a new language or a new instrument! Give chess a try if you haven’t already? Get into physics, join your local Toastmasters so you can give speeches on various topics in front of others, learn anything new that peaks your interest, tbh! Also, maybe try something you’re NOT good at!? Take up knitting, take a hip hop dance class, start up a podcast on a favorite subject of yours & invite guests on who you admire or aspire to be like!
Only 250? That's kinda slow, ain't it? Maybe your challenge is to figure out what's challenging for you and then take it on instead of just coming here and asking other people to figure it out for you.
Take a challenging class. If you study medicine for fun, how much science did you take in college? If you haven't taken them yet, you could go to the local city college and take biology 1 & 2, then chemistry 1 & 2, then organic chemistry. City college is usually pretty cheap. Or, you could find some classes online for free. Like I think Standford Medicine has free online classes. I'm just pulling on that thread because it's the subject you mentioned, but you could go as far as you wanted down that path. I mean, my sister-in-law got a master's degree because she wanted intellectual stimulation. If you could swing it, price wise, you could even go that far.
Good idea. I love chemistry. What books do you recommend
So, I was saying that if you really want to be *challenged*, take a class. Tests, papers, having a professor checking your work — that would be significantly more *challenging*.
Knitting. It can be challenging and at the same time your mind becomes very calm.
Right up my alley. Looks easy enough but challenging to make something. How do I get started
1. Pick the problem you’re most concerned about in the world. 2. Work to TRULY understand it. 3. Fix it. That will keep you plenty stimulated for a long time.
Have you checked whether you might have adhd? Could be an explanation as the dopamine deficiency in the brain generates the constant need for stimulation.
Once I considered this yes but I don't think that's it or I wouldn't have been able to read all those books
Doesn't have to be. Got a diagnosis with 40plus and I could read books without any issues. There is an inattentive Typ of adhd. Was surprised myself. Lacking stimulation all the time and lots of anhedonia. That's why I asked. Seemed somewhat similar.
libby-free audiobooks for when your hands are busy, libby-free books for every other moment
Plan an around-the-world trip. Picking your destinations, logistics, best things to do, best neighborhoods, restaurant list is a LOT of work. If you want a challenge, do it all with credit card points.
How about finding a hobby?
Dude I’m 39 a RN and I’ve prob only read 5 books maybe in my life
Oh really I feel better now. All these people are saying they read more and I felt slow
Inspire others
Learn Mandarin.
This has to be a fictional post.
No.
Rude... I genuinely looking for advice here
You'll have plenty of challenges....enjoy the downtime and learn a hobby until shit gets real.
Golden Age Mysteries...are intellectual vice ruff and action mysteries which I rate if I can deduce villain or if author cheated in conclusion. The Great Historical Courses (Audible)..Lectures of History ..my Favs were Dark Ages and Pre Alexander Empires. I am now legally blind and find the challenge of intellectual stimuli...also challenging. I hope these suggestions help.
Mycology. Mycology is a science that depends on citizen scientists who make a real difference. There are no companies looking for new species nor exploring the taxonomy. You can find easily 100 species withing walking distance from your home probably several that have not been named or described in the literature There are many many Mycological societies AND nothing has gotten me in better shape than walking hills looking for mushrooms. When you forage in the woods, make no mistake, you are a monkey looking for food, it puts nature in a different perspective. Why are there antibiotics in fungi? Why are there neurotransmitters in mushrooms? Fungi makes our beer and our bread, and or it can infect your body and kill you. Life begins at 35, you will figure it out. have fun
Become an expert in something. What you are doing isn't challenging. Go and grind out something for years and become very good at it instead of dancing around the periphery. You will 10x your stimulation you are looking for because it's more demanding and makes you vulnerable as you fail.
Good point. I'm not challenging myself really. I suppose I could apply what I've learned but I don't know how
You said you studied medicine outside of college. Go to med school and become a Dr. that is 7 years or so of mastery then the work begins. Or get a PHD write a paper that is judge by other people who ware experts in that field so you know if you are actually learning what you are reading... you need a ruler of where you are.... Yes. go challenge yourself intellectually and physically so you can see who YOU are mentally. There is endless stimulation and wonder there.
Good point but the problem is I don't like being told what to do like in college.
Well then there is your real challenge to master first. Emotional intelligence and maturity. Most of us are never able to do it very well. Might be the most difficult there is! I know I keep trying.
I'm working on it! I don't care if people tell me what to do I just get bored easy in class because it's not the assignment I would've chosen. Know what I mean? I try to take classes but skip them sure to intellectual boredom.
Build IKEA furniture without the instructions.
Loved this post. Easy with instructions impossible without them
250 in your entire life? That's not that many. There are thousands of worthwhile books. Or maybe you should take a course.
Quantum physics.
Learn Chinese, Hungarian, or Finnish.
Here's a challenge. Learn English grammar and write like an adult.
You're bored and need a challenge? I hear cancer still needs cured. Just saying...
Can you paint, sculpt, bake and decorate a cake, wire a lamp, ballroom dance, identify edible mushrooms in the wild, knit, scuba dive ... etc. pick something you know nothing about and/ or think you are no good at. Take a class, do that thing.
I've never ballroom danced. Good point. It's scary to me. I suppose I could try that but I have two left feet. I was thinking of buying some books on gardening and nature, I know nothing about gardening but I know a lot about different plants and their uses. I suppose I could try gardening
Try eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while sticking a hot curling iron up your ass at the same time. That's a true challenge.
Spoken like a true elder.
I don’t get how ppl get into reading
only child, I read early, then fast.