Busting the ‘you can’t learn difficult things after a certain age’ myth

There is this statement that has been around for so long and is incessantly perpetuated by everyone that once you are past a certain age, you cannot take on difficult things and achieve a certain mastery in them. While it certainly becomes more challenging to take on difficult skillsets as we grow older, it is still very much possible with extra effort than someone younger. There have been countless studies to support this, and we see one example of this firsthand. Older immigrants from countries like India, China have a hard time adjusting to the Canadian culture and embodying the English language but within a few years, they do a much better job at acclimatizing to the ways of the country and speaking the English language while incorporating commonly used phrases in their day-to-day language. Many studies have been done involving teaching adults how to ride a bike and while the time it takes is substantial compared to kids, they are still able to ride a bike properly by the end. I myself rejected the idea of learning guitar every time since the age of 22 as I thought it would be too difficult to pick up the patterns but after begrudgingly taking it up two years ago, I am still surprised how proficient I am at playing it. It originally started when I first heard the band ‘Nirvana’ two years ago through a random YouTube algorithm suggestion and I was convinced I had to learn these basic riffs that their leading man ‘Kurt Cobain’ played. After practicing 3-4 hours a day for months, I saw that finally my fingers just knew where to go on the fretboard and hold the shapes automatically. Today I can proudly play ‘About a girl’ by Nirvana which is one of my favorite songs. While it would have taken a kid 6 months to get to that level, it took me 1.5 years, but it definitely is possible as long as the drive to reach your goal outweighs the dismissive attitude.