Quote:
that with the right environment, neural plasticity is infinite


Well, I kind of believe that literally. I read it on a cereal box once that we only use 10% of our brain. I'm assuming they mean on average because even my light bill fluctuates.

I personally think that I think either:
1)we are born with a variety of individual "ceilings" and we each fluctuate around 10% of our max rpm. The iq test should be multiplied by 100. (shows lack of understanding of the iq test). And since we hang out around 10% of our brainpower that's why the test is only a picture in time. Or
2)we all have the same "ceiling" and some of us are comfortably firing six cylinders while others of us are eight cylinder beasts. I think they make twelve and sixteen cylinder cars now. Enough of that analogy. I've been hanging out with the hubby too much and I don't know the first thing about cars. That saying some of us like to use 20% of our brain 24/7, others, whatever. This is why sometimes you can bring others to your depth or height (nd, +/-) but they keep their own depth when you're not around. Of course you can always walk down a path with a friend for a while, regardless of the depth, yours, theirs, or wherever's fine. ((unless, like me you have installed a stubbornness firewall))

I haven't found out which I believe yet, and it might end up being something else. I also think whichever one it is we swim in different lakes with different groups of people.

Howler Karma,, no!, don't throw me into your rambles mr. Brer Rabbit.

Don't remember who posted "how the twig is bent is how the tree grows", because I read it at the krispy kreme. But I had to tell the hubby when we got back in the car because he always says it's all in the upbringing. I don't think he means ultimate potential, or maybe he does. I think he means wether they go to college or be a hoodlum, or wether the are respectful, popular, hardworking, likable..hey, even my dad said something like that, "if you want people to care about you all you have to do is be someone people would care about.".

And regarding brain surgeons and Opera Winfrey, supposedly successful people, people who contribute, produce, and are happy with it are the navel-gazers who have found "something to do as much as I like this. Find something you love to do and find someone to pay you to do it..."... But people end up growing out of what they thought they wanted sometimes. That's why we should learn to recognize when work, friends, debatably even trouble (according to the nurtured heart thread) rewards us by leaving us feel energized for doing it. That's probably why sometimes you hear about people that don't want to retire. We should learn to recognize opportunities for energizing activities so we can see them in every situation. I think. Right now I think that.

Ok, so the definition of nurture, vs environment, vs opportunity. Figure that out we can balance the school budget and chose between books, teachers, or more classes.
So what was the original question? Was it nature vs. Nurture or was it 100007 hours vs. Guidence and direction. Granted you could be on a path of your own then guidence would be a sideshow. But, if you're on a path of your own that's a pretty big thing. I don't think following,... well this post is getting too long and I'm turning rambelyer than the howler monkey now.

Youth lives by personality, age lives by calculation. -- Aristotle on a calendar