Structure of a typical neuron: myelin is the yellow portion

At one point in The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How, Daniel Coyle declares, “We are myelin beings.” OK, but so what? When tapping into a neurological mechanism in which certain patterns of targeted practice builds skills, we create entry to “a zone of accelerated learning that, while it can’t quite be bottled, can be accessed by those who know how. In short, they’re cracked the talent code.” What about myelin? According to Dr. George Bartzokis, professor of neurology at U.C.L.A., it is “the key to talking, reading, learning skills, being human.”

It is a neural insulator that, Coyle claims, some neurologists now consider to be “the holy grail” of skill acquisition because every human skill “is created by chains of nerve fibers carrying a tiny electrical impulse – basically a signal traveling through a circuit. Myelin’s vital role is to wrap those nerve fibers the same way that rubber insulation wraps a copper wire, making the signal stronger and faster by preventing the electrical impulses from leaking out. When we fire our circuits in the right way – when we practice swinging that bat or playing that note – our myelin responds by wrapping layers around that neural circuit, each new layer adding a bit more skill and speed. The thicker the myelin gets, the better it insulates, and the faster and more accurate our movements and thoughts become.” Better yet, “we are all born with the opportunity to become, as Mr. Myelin [viewed as broadband] likes to put it, lords of our own Internet. The trick is to figure out how to do that.”

Myelin was discovered in 1854 by Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902), a German doctor, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist, writer, editor, and politician, known for his advancement of public health. It is truly remarkable that we continue to learn something new about myelin each day, more than 160 years later.

The challenge for all of us is to learn how we can learn more and learn better by developing what Marty Neumeier characterizes as “metaskills.” If you are determined to do that, I highly recommend two sources: Coyle’s The Talent Code and Neumeier’s Metaskills: Five Talents for the Robotic Age.