Just saw the the trailer for Luc Besson's upcoming movie Lucy. Reminded me of Ted Chiang's novellete Understand.

Understand: "The story follows a man who is given an experimental drug to heal brain damage caused by anoxia after he nearly drowns. The drug regenerates his damaged neurons and has the unintended side effect of exponentially improving his intellect and motor skills. As he gets smarter and smarter, he is pursued by several government agencies and eventually receives a message from—and then enters into conflict with—another super-intelligent test subject."

Lucy: Lucy is a woman living in Taipei, Taiwan who is forced to work as a drug mule for the mob. The drug implanted in her body inadvertently leaks into her system, which allows her to use more than the normal 10% of her brain's capacity, thus changing her into a superhuman. As a result, she can absorb information instantaneously, is able to move objects with her mind, and can choose not to feel pain or other discomforts.

An audio version of Understand can be found at archive.org

Lucy is based on the humans only make use of 10% their brains nonsens.