Dr. Angela Duckworth

open a mind to this idea that human nature is malleable, we show them evidence from neuroscience that the brain is growing.

In fact, there's not an era in your life, doesn't matter how old you are, where you're not literally creating new brain cells.

And even more importantly, the connections between your brain cells, between your neurons, are remodeling, right?

So when I was in college, I went to college from 1988 to 1992.

My major was neurobiology.

What I learned was that the brain is very, very much a work in progress when you are in preschool.

Okay.

And maybe a little bit in elementary school.

And then, you know, things start to slow down after adolescence.

Like now you are who you are, who you are, who you are, who you will always be.

That is completely outdated.

Now we teach students in neurobiology and neuroscience that plasticity is the name of the game.

You know, what makes human beings so special is not that we're born smart.

It's just that we, you know, become smarter and smarter, you know, throughout our whole lives.

If you're intentional about it.

If you're intentional, right?

I mean, you know, I think this kind of virtuous cycle where, you know, you wake up every day and you ask, like, how can I get smarter about this, right?

Like, wouldn't that be an amazing thing?

And if you sort of, you know, pick your favorite achiever, right?

And it depends on what you love, you know, a three-star Michelin chef or a singer or, you know, a mathematician or, you know, a CEO.