With regard to our brains, we all have various aptitudes, but our actual talents are a function of what we’ve learned, developed, and experienced. Our genes reflect dispositions only. We can see how this works in the development of the brain. The genes describe certain rules and constraints for patterns of interneuronal connections, but the actual connections we have as adults are the result of a self-organizing process based on our learning. The final result—who we are—is deeply influenced by both nature (genes) and nurture (experience).
