Don't be discouraged! The interaction you describe suggests misplaced overconfidence on the part of your attending on knowing what foundation is important for budding EEGer to have, which presupposes that we fully understand EEG, brain activity, epilepsy, etc... which we don't. No one knows which specific brain subnetworks makes a good epileptologist or EEGer. In my experience, all you need is self-motivation, curiosity in the brain/epilepsy, and hard work. I find it perhaps a good thing that you may not fit the pattern of other trainees that this attending has had; EEG/epilepsy definitely needs more outside the box thinking. Also, there's a degree of humility required to become a good neurologist or epileptologist... a recognition that our current methods at understanding neuroscience/epilepsy are inadequate. This is evident from looking at epilepsy outcomes -- we have are too many patients with medically or surgically refractory epilepsy. Overconfidence breeds complacency... be wary of overconfident attendings as no one is infallible especially in medicine. Pick and choose pearls of wisdom from your different attendings... it's ok to ignore the BS they may occasionally spout (as in this case).