In complement - I have a strong tendency to approach learning by "nibbling" at problems and soaking up the low-hanging fruit, not diving into them and front-loa

In complement - I have a strong tendency to approach learning by "nibbling" at problems and soaking up the low-hanging fruit, not diving into them and front-loading all the effort. This isn't time-efficient, since with a lot of skills, intense practice is eventually required to get any result. But it lets me explore my interest in the subject, so that by the time I commit to serious study, I've developed a feel for what I want to learn, and how good I intend to become at it. Addressing weaknesses does give you a certain kind of long-term flexibility, and in my case, I tend to incrementally become more motivated as I detect weaknesses in what I'm doing - so, for example, I haven't felt too motivated to learn advanced mathematics or foreign languages until recently. But this isn't the way to get a fast result. I'm in agreement that a prodigy's talent is derived from the willingness to be unbalanced.