blabs about a nonfiction book I've been listening to (via audible)

it's called Limitless and it's so good and inspiring. ngl it's the kind of book that like, felt very cathartic to read

you know those kind of books you read and it's super validating and it's just pure endorphins. yeah

moral of the book: genius is learned, not innate, and you can become one with the right methods

which I understand sounds absolutely absurd. there's definitely like. an entire mental game you have to play to suspend disbelief enough to be like "yeah, that could be me!"

and tbh I have always been a perpetually crazy person

BUT... some of the things it tells you is how to memorize more effectively and how to train yourself to speed read

which I'm like "oh my god yes" bc 1) I'm a learning junkie and 2) I am perpetually forgetful

so learning that memory is something that can be exercised through practice is like wipes brow, god bless

it lets you train focus and stuff too so like

basically all the tools I needed in one book,,,,

I heckin love nonfiction books uggghhhh

it's always interesting comparing something like that to like....sports stars. because yeah, occasionally you've got the people who would be good at basketball no matter what because they're literally seven foot tall, but then you've got people like Venus and Serena Williams who have been playing tennis literally since they came out of the womb

it's like, a different sort of vibe than intellectualism but it's the same sort of "put in the goddamn work" mentality

yeah! the book mentions prodigies and he's like "the kids just got their 10,000 hours needed to become a professional in before most people do"

there's no such thing as child prodigies, there's just really driven parents

yuuuuuup

with the right environment a child can easily fall in love with a given interest and devote all their time to it

can't remember what book it was from, but two parents decided they wanted to try something out with their children and make them professional chess players. so they basically modeled their lives around it

the children grew up into top players, and they genuinely loved and enjoyed chess

That reminds me of how I would play school with my little sister. I was teaching her all kinds of stuff long before she would have learned it in school

And bc of that, my sister graduated nearly at the top of her class, and she said it was because I made learning really fun

And our mom had two learning disabilities and my sister's dad was lazy with education

Then there's me who ended up behind in school

So most would have looked at her and probably expected her to scrape by, at best

But nope. She found learning fun and was given basically a ladder that put her 4 grade levels ahead of everyone else

My sister was 5 years old and already knew so much basic math, random history facts, and how to cook

awww, that's awesome! you gave her a huge blessing.

Yes. She actually would have become an RPer if I'd lived with her, lol

She was so interested in it, with me, and we were using physical paper and pen to RP for a while

But we wound up living in separate places, and I sometimes wonder what kind of stuff she would have done with RP

awww man pen and paper rp takes me back. maybe she would still be interested!

Same here. And I wish, but she has her daughter and a full time job with extra work at home, since so much remodeling

But all that aside, I'm glad you have that book helping you!

Optimism feels like a fickle mistress in this day and age

same! and yeah I totally get that, sob. part of why I'm trying so damn hard tbh