&quot;As I&#x27;ve got older I felt I learned stuff much more quickly than when I started college.&quot;<p>Drifting into a personal monologue, I know I am a lot better at learning now than I was 15 years ago. Learning advanced mathematics now is much easier than it was then (measured in the rather subjective unit of &quot;amount learned &#x2F; time taken&quot;). Languages also are much easier. The only difference is the amount of time I put in now compared to the amount of time I put in then. If I was in full-time education now (instead of a half hour to an hour a few times a week) I would be yomping through textbooks and courses.<p>I think some of it is that I just know so much more now, and I&#x27;ve got so much more experience of joining knowledge up and making use of the combined result. I&#x27;ve also got so much more confidence in my ability to learn, and I know that if I&#x27;m struggling, grinding through does get results. I don&#x27;t get demoralised, I don&#x27;t wonder if I&#x27;m ever going to be able to understand it; I just do it.