★ The Bible of Intellectual Life, Praised by Andrew Carnegie and Mark Twain ★
★ A classic beloved by intellectuals around the world for 150 years ★
★ Selected as a recommended book by Harvard and Yale universities ★
★ A must-read for living as an intellectual in an age where it's difficult to be intellectual ★

The process of a person becoming stupid is silent and painless.

Sentences that were once easy to understand now require multiple readings, and words that were once familiar have become unfamiliar.
Our judgment is slowly giving way to AI.
Amazingly, Philip Gilbert Hammerton foresaw this problem 150 years ago.
"Before You Become Dumber Than Yesterday" contains his insight that "the more information we have, the duller our thinking becomes," and presents practical answers to the question "How to live intellectually."
Hammerton defines intellectual life as 'discipline' rather than 'romantic'.
A true intellectual life is not a vague longing or a realm of talent, but a process of thorough training.
Self-discipline, physical fitness, financial stability? All of these are the foundation for deep thinking.
From the emotional exhaustion, loneliness, poverty, and burnout he encounters in his research and thinking process, Hammerton hides nothing.
This honesty is why Andrew Carnegie and Mark Twain praised this book so highly.
Aren't you losing the power to think for yourself? An intellectual life is the most elegant way to avoid wasting your life.
For those who yearn for a deeper life, this book will serve as the most realistic and systematic compass.

I want to emphasize again that intellectual life is not a 'skill to be mastered' but a 'state'.
It is a process of constantly walking towards a higher and purer truth.
Between big and small truths, between complete understanding and still-incomplete understanding, if we always strive to make the "better choice," even a moment of wandering will become a valuable learning experience.
--- From the "Preface"

Look at the great creators in the pharmacy.
Wordsworth enjoyed walking tours, and Goethe swam and skated under the moonlight.
Humboldt was frail, but he trained himself through exercise and prepared for his great explorations, and Leonardo da Vinci, though poor, enjoyed horseback riding instead of selling his horse.
Most city dwellers try to reduce outdoor activities and replace them with gymnastics or exercise.
While there may be the benefit of systematically training specific muscles, you won't be able to enjoy the refreshing stimulation of the mountain breeze and wind.
In fact, for us, not only simple 'exercise' but also 'exposure' itself, willingly submitting our bodies to the whims of the weather, such as rain, wind, or cold, is a great source of nourishment.

--- From "To Those Who Neglect Exercise"

The biggest enemy you will face in the future will be the psychological pressure to 'finish quickly'.
To overcome this, we need to emulate Colton's "go slow but build steadily" attitude, or the leisurely attitude of a sailor's wife with a teacup on a canal boat.
I firmly believe that the only way to sustain an intellectual life is to accept that all time is a 'process' and to move forward calmly, enjoying each day.

--- From "To the person obsessed with the idea that everything must be done quickly"

Didn't the French writer Claude Tillier say, "The best time spent is time lost"?
It is often in the time we often dismiss as waste that important moments of intelligence blossom.
Examples include conversations at social gatherings, shouts at the hunting grounds, leisurely moments on a yacht, and even stories shared in a carriage.
It would be foolish to recommend indolence to a man of profound intelligence, but we must be on guard against excessive diligence becoming a shackle that binds us.

--- From "To a Workaholic on the Verge of Burnout"

Sometimes pressure helps.
Just as strong pressure on iron can cause sparks to fly, tension can also stimulate creativity.
I am reminded of the advice Rossini gave to a young composer.
“Write the opera overture the night before the first performance.
“It will inspire you to see the sight of a cornered man, a sheet music copyist waiting, and a theater manager pulling out his hair,” he joked, adding, “The Italian impresarios of my time were already bald by the age of thirty.”
In fact, Rossini completed the overture "Otello" on the day of the performance when the manager locked him in his room at dawn, and he also wrote "The Thieving Magpie" on the morning of the premiere, throwing down sheets of paper one by one from the upper floor.
It is clear that this extreme pressure brought out a special energy.
But in Rossini's case, it was possible because he had the confidence that "he could do it within that time."

--- From "To a person who does not want to waste even a minute"

If someone just says, “I saw a rat last week,” it won’t make much of an impression.
But what if I said this: “Late one night, I was walking up the stairs, and I saw a rat walking up the stairs in the same direction as me.
What's funny is that even though I'm following him with a candle, he stops every couple of steps to glance at me and the candle, and then when I pass by, he starts moving leisurely again.
I thought it might be a lemming because its face and tail were different in color from normal rats.
"Three days later, we met again, and this time, it moved slightly to the side, as if it recognized me. I wonder if I could tame it." This kind of story may seem trivial, but it connects to the topic of "animal personality," and it instantly captures the listener's interest.
What I'm suggesting is that rather than avoiding "small talk," why not take the initiative and steer the conversation in a meaningful direction?
--- From "To those who are passive or timid in conversation"

The loneliest moments are when you discover that your spouse is more alive in conversation with others.
We love each other, but it's more interesting to spend time with a colleague who can think about things at the same depth.
And although your spouse won't say anything, they'll definitely notice.
And then you probably think like this.
'We almost never meet.
Because we live in different worlds.' Even our once or twice-a-week walks together are filled with the worries of our children and everyday life.
The deep insights and concerns they face in their respective worlds ultimately fail to lead to a conversation between them.
--- From "To you who believes that communication is essential in a relationship"

The essence of discipline is twofold.
The first is to do the best we can with the abilities we have now, and the second is to not stop there and to be willing to accept the training necessary to achieve greater potential.
Innate talent is just the starting point.
It is not a completed ability, but a potential for future growth.
True growth only occurs when you figure out what training you need and practice it consistently.

--- From "To those who want the strength to see anything through to the end"