Thanks.

I forget just how rare that attitude is. The: You can learn anything! attitude.

So very many people in life are all about: You can't! And then we internalize that.

I think the You can't! Attitude often comes from those who are too scared to try. Perhaps because they got told that they couldn't from when they were young.

Or... Sometimes I do think that we set people up to fail. Instead of giving disadvantaged people a genuine opportunity to learn (that they can!) we give them material that is confusing and convoluted or that assumes they know a bunch of stuff that they don't know because we haven't taught them... Then (often to excuse poor or lazy teaching) we try and persuade them that they are stupid. Of course there are all kinds of feedback loops going on here. From how not having a healthy breakfast will make it harder for you to concentrate and how having parents who think you are stupid won't help you do your homework etc...

Even at University... The other day... Some people have this whole attitude thing... See... I got to the top of one field (in some sense). Well... I never handed my thesis in... But... Anyway... But the attitude I keep finding is people saying 'But why do you think that success in that field will result in success in this field?' And of course the answer is:

BECAUSE I CAN LEARN ANYTHING!

But... Seems... They still don't get it.

Of course the real issue is... That you have to work at it dilligently over years to get to do anything truly impressive. Which is, of course, what makes the achivement truly impressive. It wouldn't be worth **** if everyone could do it without any effort at all.

Just like gymnastics or bodybuilding or...

You get out what you put in.