Knowledge is power right? Wrong!

Why? Because they invite you, the consumer, to embrace the flawed line of thinking that technology will make you smarter.

The technology itself may be smarter, but nothing can make you smarter. Learning is never easy. A more flexible mind, a more potent imagination and a healthy skepticism must all be actively pursued, and too often, technology just gets in your way.

Recall that technology facilitates function, purporting to make life easier. As a result, it does to your brain's wider potential what Nando's did to the chicken: it standardises it to death.

Consider the following technological marvels:

Camera phones: They mean you'll never have to describe anything again. A picture is worth a thousand words, but those are your words; don't give them up so easily.

Text messages: You sacrifice spelling, word choice and description on the altar of convenience. What's sacrificed today becomes habitual tomorrow.

Emoticons: Those moronic faces have no business in a world in which true emotions are far more complex; they belong on grade school lunch pails. Are you really 'happy,' 'sad' or 'winking?'

Shorthand: The likes of 'LOL' should embarrass all of us. How many times are you really laughing out loud when you type that?

The reader needn't depend on any technology to work out his brain; the best exercises are hands-free, prop-free and crutch-free methods that involve you and your brain clawing your way through both the fantastic and the mundane.

Warm up right now with a small change: Until you click out of or close AnanziMen, use your weaker hand to navigate the site. That hesitation and awkwardness is not you 'sucking at' something; it's your brain firing on unfamiliar paths, trying to learn what it does not yet know. The more often you encounter this, the more beneficial the neural exercise. You should strive for this sensation.

The following 5-day brain workout routine features three elements: A small change to encourage mental flexibility, a focus on a perceptive sense to foster the imagination, and a critical thinking tool to apply throughout the day to nourish a healthy skepticism.

Monday

Small change: Brush your teeth with your weaker hand.

Sense: Vision

On your break at work, step outside and find an object to focus on. Take a tree, for example; how many shades of color do you see? How many of these colors can you put a name to? Consider the kinds of associations or metaphors you can make out of it, such as a 'family tree' or the 'tree of life' found in many religions.

Critical thinking

Don't accept amazing claims from anyone unless the evidence they offer up is unimpeachable.

Tuesday

Small change: Spell long words backwards.

Sense: Hearing

As different people speak to you throughout the day, cue in to the inflections they use to accent certain words or points. Listen to the words they're stressing and ask yourself why these inflections are being used.

Critical thinking

Subject what you hear or read to intellectual due process. Thus, be prepared to admit that you don't know something, that your experience and intelligence have limits or that a potentially offensive or repulsive notion might have merit.

Wednesday

Small change: Ditch the calculator and do any and all computations in your head.

Sense: Touch

When getting out of bed or coming home from work, shut your eyes and feel your way around, relying only on the communication between your mind and your hands.

Critical thinking

Defend an opposing viewpoint as a means of testing its legitimacy. Playing the devil's advocate can help you to overcome some long-held but potentially groundless bias or prejudice. It can also improve your intellectual empathy.

Thursday

Small change: Shower/bathe in the dark.

Sense: Taste

Pick a recipe composed of mostly foreign ingredients and prepare it. Try choosing something that you've never tried but have always been curious about. Maybe you've never tried a fishy curry dish, but the aroma has appealed to you?

Critical thinking

To get the meaning of any proposed concept, consider the consequences and results if the concept were true; the grand total of these consequences gives you the full meaning of the concept. This is especially good in putting statistics to the test. For example, the promoters of the Live Earth concerts claimed they had 2 billion viewers or nearly 1/3 of the world's population. Do the math and ask yourself just how plausible this is.

Friday

Small change: Take a different route to work.

Sense: Smell

Pick any hour of the day and for that hour, keep a running count in your head of how many different odors and aromas you come across. Pay attention to the primary element in each, and your response to it.

Critical thinking tool

The simplest explanation for most things is usually the wisest one. Also sometimes referred to as the rule of simplicity, the idea is not to make things any harder or more complicated to understand than is necessary. In other words, try to trim the fat from what you hear in an effort to reach conclusions. Albert Einstein is alleged to have said, 'Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.'

For more brain workout tips you can try Dr. Lawrence Katz's neurobics at www.Neurobics.com

(PS: On the weekends, feel free to be as stupid as you want to be. Insert smiley emoticon)