Unless the piano player or map reader keeps that up, their skill level will diminish more quickly and take longer to recover than a person whose brain is wired to handle the task.

Another critical skill for application architects is the ability to create abstractions around the particular requirements that remove specifics and map to a more generic class of problems.

The idea, said Smith is that one day, scientists might be able to map the changes in individual synapses that occur when people learn a new skill, or experience pain.