My 3-year-old beat me at a memory card game yesterday and it made me think about how adults learn

I sat down with my daughter to play one of those animal matching games with the little cardboard squares. She got 6 pairs in a row without even blinking and I could barely remember where I'd seen the fox card two turns ago. It hit me that kids don't overthink things. They just look at the picture and put it in their brain without worrying if they're remembering it right. Meanwhile I'm trying to use some mental map strategy and my brain is cluttered with grocery lists and work stuff. I wonder if we lose that raw ability to take things in as we get older or if we just fill our heads with too much junk. Has anyone else noticed a big difference in how they learn new things compared to when they were a kid? Like do you just pick them up faster or slower now?

3 comments

3 Comments

hall.joel23d agoTop Commenter

Got the same wake-up call from my nephew last week. Kids don't waste brainpower second-guessing themselves. They just see and remember. My head is full of work deadlines and phone numbers I don't even need. That raw focus is probably still in there somewhere, just buried under all the noise.

jakejones23d ago

Hear that. Got the same thing from my little niece the other day. She remembered every detail about a walk we took three months ago, like the specific shape of a cloud and the exact spot where a dog barked. And I'm over here trying to remember what I had for lunch yesterday. It's like we traded that clear, quiet focus for a brain full of clutter we don't even want. Makes you wonder what we lost along the way, you know? Really hits home that maybe we need to clear out some of that noise to find that raw focus again.

vera_lewis223d ago

Three months ago sounds about right lol. Last week I literally spent five minutes trying to remember which street I parked on and my six year old niece goes "its the one with the blue car in front, Aunt Vera." She remembered that from a random trip to the store. Meanwhile I can barely recall my own phone number half the time without checking my phone. Its honestly embarrassing how much useless junk I keep in my head when the important stuff just slides right out. Maybe we all need to hit a mental reset button and start fresh like kids do.