Sometimes I feel like I learn more slowly than I used to. Maybe my brain is a little fuzzier than before. That’s what it tries to tell me as an excuse, but I soundly reject that, because too much belief in that can lead to accepting more excuses. It’s more likely I’m spending time slogging through the plateau of mediocrity instead of playing on the slopes of awesomeness, and my brain is unfairly comparing the experiences of the two. Being aware of it means I can accept it as normal and deal with it.

I suspect this is happening because a quick antidote for the “Grr, my brain is so fuzzy” feeling is to hang out in help channels and answer people’s questions, or work on client projects and help them with their requests. Then I usually feel like I learn pretty quickly, especially when speed-reading and knowing what to search for and being able to combine different things means delighting people with how rapidly we can get stuff done. It’s ego-gratifying, but I shouldn’t do it all the time. It’s better for me to sit with my occasional frustration and get better at learning things on my own.

So it’s not that my brain is being particularly bleah, but that it wants to snack on small questions and quick wins instead of eating its vegetables.

This is where I stretch the metaphor and start thinking of ways to swap out some of the less-favoured vegetables for ones that are more palatable but just as nutritious, maaaybe letting it pick out a few things it doesn’t like and offering it options so that it thinks it’s choosing. Or something like that.

Hmm. That is an interesting metaphor, actually. It’s like I know there’s value in chewing your vegetables and all sorts of other good stuff, but I just want to start with dessert, or if I have to eat the rest of the stuff, maybe I can just pick the good parts and be off to the next thing. And I’m all, like, “I’ve already tried the green beans! Why do I have to eat them again?” (Actually, in real life, I get along fine with green beans. But you probably get the idea.)

So maybe the trick is to eat those vegetables and make “Mmmmmm!” noises until my brain gets the hang of it. Maybe even pretending that vegetables are coveted prizes. (“Good girl! Have a carrot / read an e-book.”)

Huh. Metaphors. Fun to play with. Surprisingly useful.

If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to read through a yummy Rails tutorial. Mmm. Fun. =)