Robert Sapolsky and novelty

I plan to get around to watching my Great Courses lectures by Robert Sapolsky, reading some of his popular books, tackling some of his scientific papers and perhaps writing something about his research into novelty-seeking for one of my favorite publications - once I feel confident I can do so without making egregious errors.

In my case, in the past 15 years or so I've eaten sushi, I started to listen to jazz; I've started to drink coffee (I didn't like it earlier in life); I've lived with two cats in succession (I didn't care for cats earlier in life, either; Toxoplasma gondii parasites in my brain have probably turned me into a cat-loving zombie); I've bought and learned to shoot firearms; I've apparently reprogrammed my brain to write and think in E-Prime, so much so that I have to make a conscious effort now to use the verb "to be" when I write; and I've pretty much given up on buying paper books in favor of my Barnes & Noble Nook. And that only takes me to my current age (51). Sapolsky says someone my age shouldn't feel inclined to start doing those novel things.

Now I've started to wonder if I should tackle the Russian language, though it would help tremendously if I could work with native speakers. The Foreign Services Institute classifies Russian as a Category II language in terms of difficulty for adult English-speakers to learn.

Robert Sapolsky on human learning and being open to new experiences from National Humanities Center on Vimeo.