Learning A New Skill As An Adult
What do you all think of the idea of trying to learn a new skill in early adulthood? Is it too late to master something at this age or is it never too late?
This could be many things like learning a craft, sport, instrument, a language, or even higher education.
The Barnum or Forer effect is the tendency for people to judge that general, universally valid statements about personality are actually specific descriptions of their own personalities. A "universally valid" statement is one that is true of everyone—or, more likely, nearly everyone. It is not known why people tend to make such misjudgments, but the effect has been experimentally reproduced.
The psychologist Paul Meehl named this fallacy "the P.T. Barnum effect" because Barnum built his circus and dime museum on the principle of having something for everyone. It is also called "the Forer effect" after its discoverer, the psychologist Bertram R. Forer, who modestly dubbed it "the fallacy of personal validation".
A bit too late to be very good at it ((like the level of famous)) probably because most people who are super good at something started at like age 4. Both Tiger Woods and Elton John started golf/piano lessons at like 3-4 years old IIRC. I don't know about 'master' but if you start as an adult you can still become very good at it depending on your love for it and how much time you can devote to practice. Can you keep pracitcing hard to get good even when you don't love it that much, even days you'd rather do anything else is the question. It's complicated because like Michael Jackson- had a father that basically forced him to practice and was very harsh with it- if you don't have a tough enough external motivator you might also just quit. The internal motivation must also be high enough to stick with it- which has been an issue for me.
I picked up the piano well. I got compliments from my piano teacher - even as a young child I was the only one in class who knew how to poisiton my hands right on the keyboard because my mom plays the piano and I think I have a natural talent for it. ((I also like playing Bard/buffer classes in RPGs sometimes)) I never really followed through with it though because I got distracted and I wanted to write my own music more than play it. Of course if you really love if- you do both easily. I still have an interest in music though. I also have been told it was a Capricorn thing. /hugs @aixelsyd
Languages at least can be learned by adults to a very high level, and it takes less than 2000 productive hours
Sometimes you don't have motivation because you lack purpose.
Sometimes you don't have purpose, because you lack self-knowledge
Sometimes you don't have self-knowledge because you lack love
Sometimes you don't have love because you lack self-love
Sometimes you don't have self-love because you lack guess what? Ask Gulenko!!
early adulthood is definitely not too late. it never is really. its too late when youre dead.Originally Posted by Eudaimonia
theres this expression: the best moment to start x was yesterday. the second best moment is today.
Even if you had one month left to live, it wouldn't be too late to learn something you want to learn.
If it makes your soul sing, it will be grandiose.
Contrary to popular opinion, I think learning a language is even easier in some ways as an adult than as a child. I hear a lot about how "easily" children pick up languages, but when you think about a baby -- they listen almost the entire time when they're awake, and have virtually nothing else to do, and it still takes them years to develop rudimentary speaking skills. Even with somewhat older children, the usual case when they're exposed to a new language is that they're more or less forced to use it. I think the general reason adults are said to have a difficult time learning languages is that they usually have more options to avoid learning it. But adults also have certain advantages, like greater reasoning skills, more experience, and more motivation (potentially, at least).
It's said that Cato learned Greek at 80. If he could do it over 2,000 years ago, without the help of the Internet, and with less available to read, you can do it as well.
Look at it this way: you can be 50 years old and have that skill — however imperfect — or 50 years old and not have it.
You don't really know when you're going to die so I wouldn't see a point in worrying about it, unless you are 100 years old and about to take on a 20 year undertaking. Even then, I don't see why in a lot of cases you couldn't enjoy the pursuit, even if it's not for pleasure.
I think it's generally not too late but there are some things like chess that you will never master to the same degree you would have had you started learning as a child.
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