5 key takeaways from Elizabeth Ricker’s Smarter Tomorrow 

Published in September 2021, Smarter Tomorrow was promoted as a must-read for 2022. The book based on deep research and experiments is on biohacking. Is it possible to upgrade your brain from wherever it is to another level of cognition, creativity, and performance? Ricker says yes. Her pitch is that it could take as little as 15 minutes a day for anyone to be able to ‘hack’ the brain for continuous upgrades.

On the cover, Ricker promises “How 15 minutes of neurohacking a day can help you work better, think faster, and get more done.” Ricker’s experimental journey through neurohacking encompasses athletes, gameshows, memory travels, CEOs, scientists, and sportspeople. Ricker is an MIT and Harvard-trained brain researcher turned Silicon Valley technologist. Her book is the result of a decade-long journey in experimentation. It promises to enhance four areas of brain function to unlock success: executive function, emotional regulation, learning and memory, and creativity to predict your success in work and relationships. The neurohacking techniques promise to unlock all four.

Ricker presents 20 custom self-experiments and a 12-week schedule. Ricker’s self-experiments are all based on personal tests with nicotine, video games, meditation, or a little-known beverage from the Pacific islands. Through her experiments, Ricker claims to have been able to transform her cognition, sharpen her memory, increase her attention span, boost her mood, and clear her brain fog.

Smarter Tomorrow by Elizabeth R. Ricker

Key takeaways:
1. The book actually makes the subject of neurohacking worth a coffee-table discussion and makes the subject seem a lot less threatening than it sounds. You also get to understand the plasticity of the brain and how its faculties can be wired and rewired over time.

2. It will help you with what Ricker terms as ‘mental bottlenecks or small hindrances that prevent someone from attaining their inherent potentials like mental fog, lack of sleep, ADHD, depression, and anxiety which go unaddressed can prevent mental performance. 

3. It defines the cycle of Human Irrelevance as compared with the potential for Radical Human Development. Ricker hints that with neuro-hacking individuals can mine their own abilities and lead them with more time to create value.

4. Ricker stresses the link between games, brain function, and executive abilities and shows how gaming can help build mental muscle to deal with decision-making and controlling emotions.

5. Ricker’s book will ultimately teach you about self-regulation and the possibilities of continuous growth in mind application.

Smarter Tomorrow is not an easy read, it is more like a book to work with and an ideal pick for people who invest in lifelong learning. If personal growth and development are of interest to you, go for it.