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>I'd always been the kind of person who was OK at a lot of things, never very good at any one thing, and to bear witness to such raw ability was... beautiful, i

>I'd always been the kind of person who was OK at a lot of things, never very good at any one thing, and to bear witness to such raw ability was... beautiful, if a bit discouraging, lol. I hope that by the time I die, I can become that good at SOMETHING in my life. I want to his this really hard. Being good at a lot of things, but not being the best at any one thing, is sort of a super power on its own. I always say that I'm never THE expert at any one thing, but if you give me three days and an open internet connection, I can become AN expert at anything at all. Learning is hard for a lot of people. If you excel at learning, that could be the thing that you're the best at. Never forget that.

solardev 2y ago
That's a pretty interesting topic on its own, this idea that being a quick learner is itself a skill or talent (whether acquired or innate). Probably like many others on this forum, I'm generally considered to be pretty intelligent, and can quickly pick up new information without much effort. However – I don't know if there's a term for this – but in my life, I've found that to be a double-edged sword. Some things that others struggle with (like mechanical, visual, or logical problem solving) are nearly effortless for me, where answers more or less just appear "intuitively". That works for simpler/shallower systems, but not "deeper" systems that can require years of learning and practice, like math. The double-edged part of it is that if it's not something I immediately grasp, I typically give up on it after a few days. Not really out of frustration, just losing interest and wanting to move onto something else. I guess I never needed to learn how to sit still and learn deeper topics (K-12 and college were always way too easy, full of a bunch of shallow topics that didn't require much thought). That's even more the case when it involves physical skill too, not just intellectual, in things like rock climbing or playing an instrument or martial arts or mountain biking. Whatever kind of intelligence and learning ability I have in intellectual pursuits don't seem to translate over to mixed activities like that, and I learn those much slower than normal. Not complaining or anything, just think it's interesting! I don't know whether that's because people are just different (and if they are, is it nature/nurture?), or maybe I have some undiagnosed ADD or whatever, lol. I can become an expert beginner in anything in a few days/weeks at the most. Then it plateaus, and for the next decade I'll remain an expert beginner and never move past that, lol.

solardev 2y ago

That's a pretty interesting topic on its own, this idea that being a quick learner is itself a skill or talent (whether acquired or innate). Probably like many others on this forum, I'm generally considered to be pretty intelligent, and can quickly pick up new information without much effort. However – I don't know if there's a term for this – but in my life, I've found that to be a double-edged sword. Some things that others struggle with (like mechanical, visual, or logical problem solving) are nearly effortless for me, where answers more or less just appear "intuitively". That works for simpler/shallower systems, but not "deeper" systems that can require years of learning and practice, like math. The double-edged part of it is that if it's not something I immediately grasp, I typically give up on it after a few days. Not really out of frustration, just losing interest and wanting to move onto something else. I guess I never needed to learn how to sit still and learn deeper topics (K-12 and college were always way too easy, full of a bunch of shallow topics that didn't require much thought). That's even more the case when it involves physical skill too, not just intellectual, in things like rock climbing or playing an instrument or martial arts or mountain biking. Whatever kind of intelligence and learning ability I have in intellectual pursuits don't seem to translate over to mixed activities like that, and I learn those much slower than normal. Not complaining or anything, just think it's interesting! I don't know whether that's because people are just different (and if they are, is it nature/nurture?), or maybe I have some undiagnosed ADD or whatever, lol. I can become an expert beginner in anything in a few days/weeks at the most. Then it plateaus, and for the next decade I'll remain an expert beginner and never move past that, lol.