And the oft forgotten ingredient of effective learning.
“Old dogs can’t learn new tricks,” as the saying goes. But what if the problem isn’t the dog’s age, but its attitude?
And that attitude makes it harder for its brain to neurologically adapt, which makes the attitude more deep-set; and the spiral continues.
Our brains are far more adaptable than we give them credit for, and it starts with our mindset.
And the key might lie in something we left behind in childhood.
Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to adapt and change throughout life, where neural pathways strengthen and weaken depending on usage.
The brain can create new connections and even reorganize itself in response to experience (which is a feature of trauma, by the way).
Frequently used pathways become more efficient and automatic, while unused ones fade away — for both good and bad.
We know that the strengthening of a neural pathway allows us to internalize something we’ve learned. But it can also mean the deepening of a habit that will be harder to break.
While neuroplasticity reaches its optimal state in youth, it doesn’t go away completely as we age. So the reason for our lack of learning later in life isn’t so much about our neurology than it is about our habits.
To learn new tricks, we have to step outside of our habits. But we need to do so in certain conditions.
One agreed-upon principle in the science of learning is that too much stress or pressure is counterproductive to effective learning. If we are overwhelmed, we fall back to our habits.
But we can’t avoid pressure entirely, or else we wouldn’t need to step out of our tried-and-true methods and develop new neurological pathways.
There must be an optimal level of both challenge and freedom to explore. So how do we do this? What is the secret from our childhood that will unlock this learning superpower?
Play.
Play is neuroplasticity’s personal trainer. When we engage in playful activities, whether it’s mastering a new board game or picking up an instrument, we’re essentially throwing our brains a curveball, encouraging them to make new connections, to navigate unfamiliar territory.
And here’s the beauty of it: play removes the pressure while keeping the challenge optimal. We’re not worried about failing. We’re in a state of exploration and experimentation.
This relaxed state allows our brains to operate at their peak, absorbing information and making connections with a fluidity that simply can’t be replicated under the harsh glare of fluorescent lights and looming deadlines.
It’s the difference between trying to solve a puzzle while someone’s breathing down your neck vs with a cup of coffee and a cat curled up on your lap.
The adults today who are staying on top of our ever-evolving technology are usually the ones most willing to play around (and find out).
So what happened to play?
If play is so beneficial for learning and productivity, why aren’t we all running around like oversized toddlers, building sandcastles and learning Mandarin simultaneously? Well, therein lies the rub.
Society has a strange paradox — we celebrate lifelong learning, yet we demonize play as a childish indulgence. Somehow we expect ourselves to learn like machines in a production line.
Sadly, we extended that to our children. That production line is called the school system.
Somewhere along the way, the permission to explore, experiment, and fail without fear gets revoked. The expectation to be productive and achieve suffocates the very thing that keeps our brains sharp — the spirit of Play.
We get stuck in routines; in well-worn neural pathways.
The result? Stagnation.
It’s a vicious cycle: the less we play, the less we learn, the less we believe we’re capable of learning, the less we’re willing to play. And deeper we sink into the quicksand of intellectual complacency.
The good news is, we can rewrite this narrative.
This isn’t about becoming childish or escaping responsibility. It’s about recapturing the Spirit of Play, the one that is never gone, only suppressed.
Challenge yourself with new activities, embrace the thrill of the unknown. Maybe it's learning a new language, taking up pottery, or finally tackling that coding course you've been eyeing. The key is to find something that sparks your curiosity.
And who knows, you might just surprise yourself with the hidden talents that lie dormant within that "old dog" brain of yours.
Stay purposeful.
– Nathanael
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