I don’t think the German people at work know that I can now understand most of what they say, despite not really speaking any German (because I never practice, nor care to.)

That kind of thing, I learn fast. I’m the exact opposite in languages as compared to math.

In languages, I can just play. I’m top tier, and there’s no reason to be modest. It just is. In math, I just can’t do anything worth a damn, and the things I can do I forget quickly.

I need to read a few more books and do some more studying but some day soon I’ll produce a list of real books you should read vs. science popularization claptrap*.

Such as: don’t read Outliers, read this instead.

Don’t read Guns, Germs and Steel, read this.

Many of the books I’ll recommend will be harder than the pop-sci equivalents, and most will be textbooks and some will be scientific papers, but them’s the breaks. You’re actually making yourself dumber by reading Malcolm Gladwell and their ilk, so what’s the point of that? Talking about it over the water cooler at work? I don’t give a crap about that. I care about actually learning.

*Not all pop-sci books are garbage, but many of them are, and almost all of the really popular ones are mostly worthless.