It's amazing sometimes how easily people (including me) have been conditioned to give up on things because they don't have "natural ability" at that.
It's especially funny when you get good at things you've always been terrible at by accident, for example through play.
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Schooling, even for so-called gifted students, infantilizes and saps confidence. The very idea that you need to be "in school" is such.
The effect is so draining that even people who are used to deliberate practice - musicians, athletes, etc. - experience learned helplessness.
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When you sink awareness into the thing you are doing poorly - not blocking feelings of inadequacy, nor emphasizing them - suddenly you start seeing mistakes.
If you start correcting these mistakes, obviously, the technique improves.
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Even the most banal form of ineptitude is good practice. I've always been rather poor at pouring tea from pots. I splash it everywhere.
I focus on what I'm doing, instead of thinking "here I go being clumsy again", and, oh, I'm holding the pot like an idiot, aren't I? Oops.
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