So first off, big applause, it's my first post in over 8 years! I know, I know, my fans are raving, which is limited to pretty much just me (and all the people I tell). Won't stop me from tooting my own horn, though.
This this is a 'daydream' topic, but I think most all of us have had the moment where we think "Man, if I could back to when a kid and keep all the maturity and intelligence I have now, how crazy would that be? I'd be good at everything!" Maybe that's just me, but especially since I've become a father and watched my boy struggle with things like focus and ambitions (he's 6, so it's understandable) the topic has popped into my mind. Like "man if I were out there at 6, with my current-brain, I could smoke all those 6 year olds at soccer, be a regular Pelé!" But it's fun to think about, about how you could capitalize on all the knowledge you have for your gain down the stretch, but how you would lose all these things in your life like your spouse, kids, friends, etc that you would have to hope would occur in your life again the same way they did before.
However, in studying out this topic in my mind, I began to wonder: how much would all of that gained intelligence and maturity and developed talent be hindered, obstructed, or wholly negated by the undeveloped and immature brain you'd be stuck with? The natural instinct is to be like 'yeah, I'd be like an adult in a kid's body' but I wonder now how it would actually work.
I'm not savvy on all the science behind the development our brain undergoes during our years maturing, but it stands to reason that a 6 year old's brain isn't capable of things like quantitative reasoning. But is that due to lack of intelligence? Or lack of the "required hardware" relative to the brain functions?
So then I'm thinking, if I took my intelligence and skills and knowledge back to my 6 year old self, would I even be able to capitalize? Would my 6 year old brain be limited in how it could apply information and approach a problem? Would it be more like a curse, akin to someone with Alzheimers who has a memory of things they could do, but a body and brain that is inconsistent in its ability to perform or completely unable to perform the task?
Of course, continuing along those lines, the next thought is to wonder how much of our talents and maturity already exists in our undeveloped mind and over time as our brain matures it becomes more capable of utilizing that talent, versus the idea of us 'building it' or 'developing it'. I'm sure it's more of the latter, I think that's what all the science suggests, but it's fun to think from the other perspective, that the talent and maturity is already there, just we cannot access it without the required brain capability.
While the idea of being an adult in a 6 year old's body and playing on a YMCA soccer team and smoking all those kids is indeed fun, I think it would actually be incredibly frustrating trying to translate thought into action with our limited 6 year old brain.
