When I went back to school and took a programming course (and in fact, managed to take it 2 and a half times) I was truly shocked by how "hard" it was... until I realized that it had been so long since I'd run into programming problems that I couldn't comprehend and fix immediately. It took an effort to let go of my self-judgement and accept that I was adrift in a sea of concepts that I had to conquer.

Sticking with it though -- led me to having a series of what I've heard a dog trainer call "Helen Keller moments" where concepts snap into place and you can suddenly grok a paradigm of how things work and how you'll make them work.

Helen Keller moments are a cool idea. I talk about the concept of "yet" a lot. I tell them learning is funny -- that you start with a sense that you get it, then you hit a roadblock and suddenly it's all confusion and you have to roll around in that mire and much and you feel like you don't get it. But it's just that you don't get it yet. Then things click and you've mastered it.

Atul Gawande has a lovely essay on this idea around practice.

I haven't ever been praised for being smart, at least by parents. But I also don't like not being good at things quickly. I have been flirting with retaking math classes so that I can retake chem and organic chem so that I can either be an RN or a respiratory therapist. God knows I have a lot of practical experience.

I had my lazy-smart-kid awakening in 7th grade, when I went to an incredibly tough math/science magnet school and went from being a straight-A student to getting C's and D's just because my study habits were so atrocious.

But then I didn't test into the magnet high school that would have been the natural next step, so high school and college were, in comparison, a total breeze.

Now as an adult, I wish I'd challenged myself much more in college. I can't completely regret my choices because if I'd enrolled as an engineering major I probably would have lived on north campus and never would have met DH, but when I look at what I do for a living and think about what value it adds to society...bleh.

Kristin, you might be interested in a book called Why We Cooperate (which you can get as a free PDF here [link] ) - it talks a lot about Dweck's research into early child development and sort of dismantles the "Spelke now, Dweck later" line of thinking. (Or is it "Early Spelke, later Dweck"? Can't remember the exact phrasing.)

Another great book is Nurtureshock. They talk about Dweck's research there, but they also debunk a bunch of other pseudoscience myths, like spanking is bad, or violence on TV is worse than children's programming.

Great book.

Baby dolphin!

It looks like Khaddafy has been captured and may be dead.

I am leaving for a 12 hour road trip in an hour! GO VACATION!

And I found out last night that this Theatre Bizarre thing will be held in the largest Masonic temple in the world; I am am tempted to take my copy of the Illuminatus Trilogy to get into the proper frame of mind.

Not looking to 12 hour ride. But have iTouch loaded with 6 eps True Blood, and laptop batteries good for 3 hours for a movie and an ep of...something. I can't read in a car -- not even magazines. Makes me car sick. But I CAN watch shows, I have discovered. And we will talk and listen to music and such.

I can't smoke in the car. That will e challenging. But I have gum!

SO. EXCITED. (I can't believe I'm going on vacation to DETROIT.)

Cute tee shirt

Maybe this should be in Good Things?

22 y.o. woman pulls over on freeway to jump out of car and rescue truck driver after his rig crashes.

because I had good ideas and could phrase them well, no one one had called me out on the fact that my papers had no overall structure

My sister was saying she'd gotten away with this for a long time. The standard way of presenting your thesis argument, etc, and constructing an essay? Greek to both of us. We both just stumble through trying to be convincing until we reach some sort of wrap up. However, she's done a million degrees by now, so she's gotten that under control. I went into IT, so I never needed to.

It was scarily apparent, however, reading her students' essays that they had no idea how to construct an argument. She also teaches technical writing to Master's students, and is insisting on more lengthy writing samples before students are accepted into her program, because she's just tired of dealing. As I can well understand.

It's not that my parents were notable for not praising us for being smart--they didn't praise us for anything. Our grades weren't good enough for comment. Neither was our effort. Our arts. Our sports. Our looks. Nothing. It was all back to the drawing board and achieve more, and praise might get in the way of further elevation.