In fact I am neither, I am in my early 40s and thus my question. I too was obsessive about certain things(programming, chess) at that age. My problem is that

In fact I am neither, I am in my early 40s and thus my question. I too was obsessive about certain things(programming, chess) at that age. My problem is that this is not enough anymore when you are older. Even if you have all the time in the world, you will not be able to improve as much as some 15 year old in a year of intense study. So it goes. I do not want to get bad at something, I want to get decent at something that would help people be it basket-weaving, or teaching German philosophy from original German texts. My pet theory for some time has been that in order to achieve something significant in some field, you must have done a lot of deliberate practice before reaching certain age. So some talent, lots of hard work and age < 20(25) are necessary conditions. The age part has mostly been ignored, while hard work part has been emphasized.