While coasting along as an average student, I developed an interest in numbers and puzzles, which eventually led to an interest in maths and physics. When I was in high school, I would spend endless hours trying to decipher formulas in an attempt to come up with shortcuts for calculations and, unbeknownst to me, I ended up being better than average in that one area. I didn’t realise at the time that I was indulging in what researchers would call ‘deliberate practice’ and the ‘flow state’, in which you intentionally step out of your comfort zone and try to flex the physical or mental muscles
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