I sometimes say I've got a mind like a rock... it takes a long time to get things in there, but once they are there, they aren't going anywhere. Another way to look at it is that there is a difference between max speed and max distance. I am very patient, and I will keep learning something to the point of mastery , but have little use for quickly acquired, disposable information and skills. As a learner, I will not go as fast as most, but I will be able to go further.

It is also helpful in teaching situations. When you have learned something slowly, it can make you more able to teach it to someone else.

There is a popular book called Thinking, Fast and Slow, which examines this in more detail.

The only advantage I can think of is that people will most likely expect less of you. Some traits are simply not positive and we gotta live with them. I'm very clumsy and uncoordinated, forgetful and unnecessarily critical at times, amongst many other things, and I just have to live being mindful of them to the best of my limited abilities. Having said that, you don't need to be clever or mentally agile (or coordinated) to be righteous and prosocial, to be a "good person", and that's all that matters at the end of the day, right?

You can play balatro for longer before you get bored of it

Being a fast learner is better than being a slow learner, but being a slow learner is better than being a rushed learner.

I think music, done properly, takes time to develop and the traditional academic system is kind horrible for it.

The fact that you're a slow learner is not an advantage.

The fact that you have traits such as meticulous, goal oriented, patient etc and learn despite this can be an advantage.

I run with the “formerly gifted child” crowd. There’s a few things that I think can come from the pressures of being seen as a “fast learner”. The main is that the first part of learning is often the easiest and the place where most progress is seen. However if you want to truly master a topic the rate slows way way down. Former gifted children often have an internalized pressure that everything should proceed at the same speed forever. It’s neither possible or sustainable and mostly leads to burn out.

Additionally there is a tendency of people to stick with the stuff that seems easier or comes more naturally. You see this a lot with academically talented kids dropping out of sports or music quickly because it’s hard for them. This builds an avoidance of persevering through difficult work. Again to master a given topic, even if it’s in their typical skill set they are going to have to slog through parts that are hard and uncomfortable.

I personally seek out teachers or tutors who struggle for B level grades because they’ve had to put work into understanding material rather than just being like of course this thing works this way.

slow learner

“is it better to be smart or dumb”

Being a slow learner in my field, working on communication towers, is bad. People get hurt if someone on the team is not up to speed.

I don't really see any advantages. But that's just me.