A while back I told you about medical school. Six years at the library, and a strategy that basically amounted to volume, volume, volume. I still think about how much time that cost me.

Here's the part I left out: even after I'd learned about focused sprints and real rest,
I kept trying to learn new things the exact same way I learned in school. Highlighting. Re-reading. Cramming the night before a client call the way I used to cram before an exam.

It took me embarrassingly long to notice that I'm not a student anymore, and the way
I was taught to learn was built for a very specific brain, at a very specific age, that I no longer have.

What actually changes about learning once you're past your twenties, and what to do instead!

Let's get into it.

Here's a number you've probably heard:

the brain is "done" developing around 25.
It gets repeated so often at this point it's basically folklore.

It's not quite right, and the correction matters more than the original claim did.
The "25" figure comes from early brain-scanning research that only followed people up to age 20 and extrapolated the rest. Bigger, more recent research suggests your brain keeps meaningfully reorganizing well past 25, with the single largest shift in how its networks are wired actually showing up around 32.

So why does this matter for learning?

Because "your brain is basically fixed once you're an adult" turns out to be wrong twice: the endpoint isn't 25, and there isn't really a fixed endpoint at all.
What changes with age isn't your capacity to learn. It's what you're learning on top of. And that means student-style techniques stop being the right tool for the job!

Let me explain it to you in more detail:

Translation

And here is how this can look in practice:

#1: Space it, don't stack it.
One three-hour session on Sunday loses to three one-hour sessions spread through the week, for anything you actually want to remember a month from now. If it matters, it earns more than one sitting.

#2: Start from what you already know, not from zero.
Before learning anything new, spend two minutes writing down what you already believe about it. You'll skip the parts built for novices and go straight to what's genuinely new, which is usually most of the value anyway.

#3: Practice the thing instead of just reviewing it.
For adults with real prior knowledge, doing (solving the actual problem, drafting the actual document) beats re-reading almost every time. Save the guided tutorials for territory that's genuinely unfamiliar to you.

That's it for this Saturday.

The next newsletter edition will come out on Saturday, the 29th of August 2026.

We will continue with:

"EQ Basics: You Have Four Emotion Words. You Need Twenty."

Own it!

Yours,
Moritz

PS:

Can you rarely make time for physical activity or regeneration? Do youI feel emotionally unstable and have difficulties to stay calm under pressure? Is managing people emotionally and energetically draining for you?

If that sounds familiar, Mastering Emotions is for you. I began coaching in 2023. Since then, l've coached over 30 executives, entrepreneurs, and high potentials on building Emotional Intelligence and into becoming future leaders.

If you want to learn more about my coaching book an orientation call here:

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