Comment by seanhunter

As someone who is currently studing maths I strongly disagree with this

> He’s really talking about curiosity. Calling it stupid is a cheeky glass-half-empty framing.

One of the most important characteristics to succeed in maths is the ability to acknowledge things you don't understand, to fail, and to persist in spite of failure. Trying really is the only way to understand some hard things, because there are some things that are conceptually extremely difficult.

He's not talking about relative stupidity where there are other people you feel are smarter, he's talking about stupidity on an absolute basis. You don't know. You don't understand. But somehow you have to find a way to carry on, and then later on, looking back once you do understand, you're baffled by why you didn't know/understand or couldn't see some crucial things. You have climbed up a ladder and pulled it up behind you and it's hard now to imagine what it is like to be on the ground.

It's not about curiousity. Of course you have that - if you didn't you wouldn't be there in the first place.