July 30, 2010

Is Lumosity worth your time and money?

I read about Lumosity some time back in the very excellent book "What Color is Your Parachute."  Lumosity is a web based platform of games designed to challenge and improve aspects of your brain functioning.  I didn't actually check out the site while reading "What Color is Your Parachute" but clicked on an online advertisement sometime later.  Perhaps you have seen one and are curious.  I decided I would provide my basic information (no credit cards) in exchange for a 7 day trial access. There are over 30 games and various training programs that run through the games in specific sequences.    I first completed the Basic training program.  It is 40 modules and was a bit of a slog to get through in the 7 day period but I wanted to give it a fair assessment before I considered spending for the website.  It is sold as a subscription model -- ie monthly or annually.  I didn't buy right away and I was rewarded for my patience as Lumosity sent me an email shortly after my trial period with a discounted rate.  In fact the first email offer was for a 20% discount and I didn't respond to this.  I next got an email for a 30% discount or 6 months free with an annual subscription.  I was tempted to wait further and see if the deals got better but decided that I was enjoying the site enough that I wanted to resume training unrestricted. 
Try it for yourself:

www.lumosity.com

Stress Buster Video

This short video will relax you. I recommend paying it on full screen. For more videos like this, I have started a playlist of guided relaxations on Youtube.