What has made you smarter?

This is great.

Here are a couple:

Teaching the things I'm learning–either by explicitly teaching as a coach/mentor or just passionately sharing an idea I'm striving to master. Writing summaries of books/ideas I dig and sharing them with friends also rocks.

Journaling - compliments your meditation practice really really well. Sit down and work thru your big ideas and challenges and dreams and projects after your meditation and watch the creativity flow!

Well, behavioral psychology has shown us that fear inhibits learning, so part of what's helped me is working, actively, on not being afraid, and operating from a place of openness and passion rather than concern or worry or negative stress.

Brian's note about teaching, too, is something that I feel strongly about. There's something about participating in knowledge - and the transmission of knowledge - that help me really understand it. (Ditto the journaling / writing thing. Zaadz has a brilliant boss. :)

I have a reading addiction. Sometimes what I need to work on is putting down the books and applying what I've learned.

Discussion. Interaction. Participation. And operating from the perspective that everything is a learning opportunity, and that there is wisdom to be gained from every situation. Learning is tremendously attitudinal, and remembering this has definitely helped me. (And there's actually quite a bit that can be learned from the “less intelligent” … though I do understand the frustration of shallow conversation.)

Physical exercise. Eating well. I feel must more mentally sharp when I'm taking care of my body. It's crucial to keep my little meatball brain well-fed, and, too, all the neurons and muscles and tissues attached to it. :)

Awesome question, though! If I think of any more I'll come back.

Oh wait. I forgot the most important one.

Zaadz has increased my IQ by a measurable 20 points. No joke.

:)

Alright, I am a certifiable Very Smart Person. Really, I've got the numbers to prove it. Is everyone suitably impressed then? That's a little sad, because as a Very Smart Person, I'm capable of really big, dumb mistakes it would seem…don't get me wrong, I'm happy to have the capabilities I have, but they can go wrong a lot farther than my develpmentally disabled clients could ever approach in their wildest dreams (more about them later). I can think myself into quite a mess – and pretty often find my way back out again, which is one of the things that I think has fed my intelligence.

So, by the categories given:

Helped a ton:

Problem solving. Often solving problems I've created, but the exercise is good regardless.

Possessing overwhelming curiosity. Probably my hallmark trait, with mixed consequences, but overall definitely a benefit.

Paying attention. Doesn't this one go without saying? I had to say it anyway, though.

Remembering - this one is something I think gets overlooked. I remember a lot. Once I learn something I don't usually have to reinvent the wheel later. I think a lot of what passes for intelligence is actually excellent memory and I'm grateful to have one.

Sincere intention. I think this is actually the biggest one. I really do believe in my heart of hearts that the story can have a good outcome for everyone and that I can contribute to that. Without that compelling foundation, I don't think I would be able to apply my intelligence to anything in a consistent way. But maybe that's just me, and others can feed on a purely intellectual exercise.

Being fully here in a body. The more I acknowledge that this physical vehicle feeds the consciousness it embodies, the better it all goes.

Resources: I feel incredibly lucky. I have nearly all of recorded history and the entire global world literally at my fingertips. I am not anti-television (although I am selective) at all, and I have a passionate relationship with books. I've said before that it amazes me to no end that I can own the culmination of a brilliant person's life's work and research for ten or twenty dollars. I can read, re-read, loan to friends, reference later, it's all mine. There hasn't ever before been this opportunity to absorb so much creativity and insight, so much gorgeous music, so many brilliant words, to see images that come out of pure genius - and I live what is just a regular life in this country at this time.

I'm leaving out the helped-somewhat category. Everything helps somewhat, I don't think I'll get anywhere with that.

Made me dumber:
Laziness
Fear
Self-absorption
Contempt for other people.

That last one brings me to: “spending time with people who aren't as intelligent” - those words are difficult for me to even read. Siona, I love your gracious comment about avoiding shallow conversation, but I think it begs the question. I work with developmentally disabled people, and I'm not being politically correct when I say that I learn things in that situation. If spending time with people we've labeled as “less than” brings us down and diminishes us, then the only reasonable choice is to dismiss and discard those people, whether they are disabled or just too boring for us, because we're so superior and we don't want to become contaminated with their bad, dumb, boring juju. Or we could choose to condescendingly throw the lesser ones some crumbs of our extra attention, you know, just to be polite. But just applying the label really labels us most of all I think - I know that I have plenty of moments when I can be the shallow, boring person, not because I've suddenly lost intelligence points, but because I'm stuck, I'm self-conscious, I'm tired, I'm confused, and what gets me through those moments is having connections that remind me of what is possible. And seeing what is possible for others and acknowledging them exactly where they are is one of those exercises that feeds my own intelligence and makes my life bigger.
I think leaving the door open feeds my intelligence maybe most of all.

Helped a ton:

Generative Listening as Zaadzster Duri describes here.

Living in a committed realtionship with my wife.

Risking from time to time deep silence and the xperience of overcoming skin hunger as Ken Wilber describes in One Taste.