The Little Book of Being Brilliant by Andy Cope

Author:Andy Cope
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780857087904
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2018-11-10T00:00:00+00:00

Or Man from Atlantis wriggler?

Whatever.

You burrowed into your mum’s egg and, ping, you became a single-cell creature. Instead of being the ‘potential to exist’, you actually existed. The cells got busy multiplying and about nine months later you made a grand entrance into the blinding light of a birthing unit or, if you’re like my niece, the reception area of Doncaster hospital.

Someone smacks your backside (nice welcome and first lesson learned!), you suck some air into your fledgling lungs, and begin absorbing the world around you. You have a certain genetic make-up but, other than that, you’re a blank canvas, ready to be imprinted upon.

Your first day’s a bit blurry. Hopefully you start to get into some sort of routine; eat, shit, sleep. That kind of thing. You might still be in a similar holding pattern?

Brains are much more active developmentally in childhood. Your first two years are characterized by crazy growth. By age two, you had over one hundred trillion brain synapses – double the number you have now. Yes, you bloomed at two! Your brain was alive with possibilities but figured it would never be able to use them all so from two onwards it stopped creating more connections and set about pruning the ones you already had.

So basically, at age two you could have been anything and anyone. Your brain was zinging with unlimited potential. From then on you started to become who you were going to be for the rest of life.

There was another massive spurt of development during adolescence, plus you grew some hairs and male or female bits and bobs. During your teenage years you experienced an overwhelming desire to be part of a gang, team, band, friendship group – your desire to fit in meant you started to dress the same as your chums. You had the same haircuts, listened to the same music, and watched the same things on TV. You thought you were super-cool but checking back through those photos, the truth is revealed!

Then from late teenage-hood your brain progressively solidified with your mature brain in place by your mid-20 s.

Hopefully you get to enjoy some awesome decades of maximum brain capacity and then, without wanting to get too upsetting, the whole thing can go into decline. The wonders of medical science mean that our bodies can be kept alive beyond our brain’s ability to stay in the game. The decline of your memory and personality can be heartbreaking. Enough said.

Let me be clear. Your early years were crucial. Your children’s and grandchildren’s early years still are critical!

In summary, brain growth occurs in such a way that it develops a stupid amount of axons, dendrites, and connections. Up until the age of about seven, you are a universe of possibilities. And, gradually, depending on your early years’ experiences, these possibilities get narrowed down.

For me, there are two standout points here:

Although the rate of development slows, your brain never stops changing. It is a relentless shapeshifter, constantly rewriting its own circuitry.

The process

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