Comment by the__alchemist 7 hours ago
It's not comfortable, but this seems to be what the priors point to. I suspect that pure mathematics is one of the most intelligence-dependent fields; one where hard work, practical solving problems and a large knowledge base is less of a substitute.
> one where hard work, practical solving problems and a large knowledge base is less of a substitute.
I have seen this first hand. I remember when I was in university doing my math major. This one older adult lady (she seemed 40yrs old, and very attractive too), she had decided for some reason or other she wanted to do a major in mathematics. Not for a job or anything but just to do it.
Whereas the rest of us, let’s face it, we just wanted a good job in STEM.
Bless this lady, she was so determined and hard working. She would show up to every lecture, first in, last out, and she would show up to every study session and give it her all.
But unfortunately, she was not good at grasping the concepts nor solving the problems. It was shocking how little she grokked the introductory concepts for the amount of effort she put in. She worked harder than anyone in our group.
I don’t think any of us had the heart to tell her that maybe a math major was not in the cards.
I never saw her on campus in my 3rd year and on so imagine she dropped off.
But I was rooting for her.
I think what happens is, IQ is a sort of speed. They teach the class assuming they can get most people through it at whatever pace they are used to teaching at. If you're quick, you can keep up with a below average effort, and vice versa.
As you get higher and higher up in the stratosphere, the balance between "we need enough students" and "we need to go faster" ends up favouring the few super intelligent people, along with the people who can arrange their lives to put in the hours.
That's not to say you can't learn something if you are slow. You just can't learn it at the pace they are teaching, and you might not have the wherewithal to learn it at your own pace.
So to you it looks like this lady would never learn it, but I would guess if she had a personal tutor they would be able to pace it.
> one where hard work, practical solving problems and a large knowledge base is less of a substitute
Collaboration remains an important skill – I had an REU mentor who said that, given the explosion of mathematics that one had to learn to do cutting-edge work in a field, she had to end up "pooling experience..."