"What restrictions have others placed on you?" Among other things, I have come to the realization that the way that our schools are structured (in the US anywa

"What restrictions have others placed on you?" Among other things, I have come to the realization that the way that our schools are structured (in the US anyway) promotes this type of thinking you're talking about. There's a reinforcing feedback loop taking place: 1. You have no natural interest in (say) algebra, possibly due to lack of knowledge about what it is and what it is for. This is never explained to you in a way that makes sense to you. 2. You don't spend time thinking about algebra, and neither does your subconscious. 3. You do your homework, but don't care much, and don't care to learn. Because you don't care, you don't care to understand deeply. You're now stuck learning in a shallow way, or, in other words, memorizing inert knowledge. The knowledge is mostly unusable to you, and the homework and tests are structured in such a way to allow shallow understanding to get by, so you're fine. You mainly care to meet the expectations of the teacher (get a good grade and be viewed favorably), so all is good. 5. Because of the above, you mostly suck at tests, and mostly suck at meeting the teacher's (and peer's) expectations. You suck compared to others in the class. 6. Because you don't fully understand the implications of what you're learning, you continue not to care. Because you are sucking, you care even less. 7. See #1 with the same or other topics. I'd recommend reading about Carol Dweck's Entity vs. Incremental Self-Theories on Learning. Incredible stuff. "The amount of skill that you have in a certain area is proportional to the amount of work that you put into it." Instead of using the word "work", I would say "proportional to the amount of time you and your mind spends on it." One reason people are significantly and seemingly naturally better at certain skills is because they are naturally drawn to it. Things you are naturally drawn to you both consciously AND subconsciously spend time on. In the past I've never spent much time contemplating or trying to understand the intricacies of the stock market, and neither has my mind, and I have never had much interest, and so I'm not a particularly skilled stock broker.