Comment by novok | Hacker News Reader

Comment by novok | Hacker News Reader

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You might have certain targeted deficiencies that make processing those things well difficult. Like I have a hard time finding things in visual space, so I'm not good at jigsaw puzzles. I have slower reaction times & processing speeds also which makes me not as good at video games as I should be combined with the visual space deficiencies. When a shit ton of stuff is happening on screen I lose my place, while others might be able to manage it.

But I also show an ability to think and learn deeply and score very well on symbolic and verbal intelligence, I also connect the dots very well and show a lot of skip thinking behavior. I call my brain a high torque, low RPM engine.

Also you might not like anything that is 'competitive', so your brain shuts down in avoidance / disinterest. Or you might think deeply about everything, so it always takes you a while at first, but once you grasp it you grasp it at a deep level unlike others.

Things improve with practice though, at least they did for me. I largely sucked at action video games as a kid, I also didn’t have interest probably because I wasn’t good. I took to learning musical instruments and now in my 40s I accidentally found Im pretty good at videogames, much much better than when I was young. Coincidentally I got better at sports as well.

This reminds me of how a lot of top video game speedrunners (e.g. Portal) are professional musicians because they are very good with accurate timings lol

There's also some anecdata floating around in the -- what would you call it, the "competitive speed typing" community? Or "people who play TypeRacer a lot". Some seemingly significant correlation between skill in typing and piano. Or at least the appearance of skilled typists having some interest or experience in piano. This could probably be generalized to being good at fingering or timing, or maybe even further, to having effective mindsets or attitudes regarding performance of skills (like the need for a presumptive confidence of sorts), or being aware of good practice methods.

I accept your hypothesis, but allow me to suggest an alternative hypothesis for you to consider (and maybe reject after consideration).

I am in my late 40s. Modern videogames are a great deal easier than games I played as a child. I tried playing a few games from my mispent youth recently, and was absolutely amazed at just how much harder they were.

FWIW, I also play music, mostly guitar.

Hmm, this rings some bells for some people I know. Did you learn about those deficiencies and proficiencies in a systematic way or through experience? Any resources you'd suggest for thinking more deeply about these things?

A neuropsychological assesment figured it out for me, helped me connect some dots also.

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