The Stanford University offered a course online from 2014: "How to learn math for students". They noticed the difference between those who did and those who didn't like math is the experiences they had. Sometimes they thought " we're not fast enough", but when you work with many mathematicians, they are not usually fast math thinkers. They are deep mathematical thinkers.
Marketing is all that matters, though. Without it, even the most intelligent people in ANY subject will remain invisible until their deaths. It is what it is.
it's a problem with how maths is tested in school as a timed, rehearsed thing, facilitating more fast rote learning and less deep and thorough understanding. the former gives more marks, generally. If anyone was a student I know what they'd be prioritising...
I graduated highschool in 1996 with a D average. Math was my worst subhect. I joined the navy in 1999 and spent 10 years there. I went back to college and majored in mathematics in 2009. Today, im a lead electrochemical engineer in the Lithium-ion battery industry. Anything is possible if you work hard enough!
@@theeamazingkrabb5358 I think some people believe that you are either good at maths or you’re not;but I think that really a good excuse not to work hard.
@@None-if3mo no I was just wondering for others.i find mathematics easy and have never really struggled.i was just saying about my peers so I could better motivate them 👍
As a person who aced almost everything in high school, the university really taught me this lesson. I had never failed in my studies as I did in the University. It was a really humbling experience. It has made me appreciate the process of failure more and has helped me improve my work ethic in my quest to become a robotics engineer.
University was difficult for me. Because I had to kick out the notion that this was just like a high school course where I could just pick up an assignment and be done with it in 15 minutes. I knew self-studying was necessary. But I never, truly, internalized this. And no matter the talent, if I spent no time studying for the test...I didn't do well on the test.
whats your plan to become a robotics engineer? i havent done projects currently in my undergrad i was super distracted, so i plan to do a masters in robotics..
This comment almost perfectly describes me. Due to my natural intelligence, school always came easy to me and so I was a straight A student until my parents got divorced, which is when I moved to a new place in 8th grade. I can't say for sure why, but I lost interest in school completely after that. I stopped doing the majority of my homework besides the big projects, and I almost never studied. Yet, because of my ability to ace my quizzes and tests without studying at all, my scores on the big projects that I did do, and the multitude of honors and AP classes that I took that give a +1 to the numbers used in the GPA calculation, I still finished high school with like a 3.5 GPA (not impressive, based on what I was capable of, but good enough, considering how little effort I put and all the 0's I got for hw). This did nothing to build my discipline or my work ethic. I went into college with the same lack of care or effort, at the University of Illinois. I can tell you that college was a different experience. It was humbling after I was on the verge of failing out of the school due to not attending more than half my classes and getting numerous C's. I ended up transferring out and taking community college courses for a year and staying at home while my mom worked on building back up my confidence and teaching me about not giving up. Round two at university went much, much better and I graduated a few years later. And yet, I ran into a similar issue when I went into the work force and I had to learn the same lesson all over again smh. I regret having to learn this lesson twice, but I have thoroughly learned it now. Talent alone can cover for a lot and take you pretty high, but without determination and effort, you can easily fall when you're near the top.
Personally, uni made me realize how much of a mess I mentally am, in high school and before (though I had the best grades everywhere), I could never understand why some thing clicked instantly and other things didn't, and why I couldn't understand things that didn't click instantly, no matter how hard I tried. The way I understand how I think now, is that I have practically no working memory and ability to visualize things, and these things are absolutely crucial in the process of remembering, understanding and thinking, which means that if something is not easy enough that I can inherently grasp it, then there is no way that I can mentally understand it. However, I can kind of replace my lack of working memory through heavy note-taking, and my lack of mental imagery through physical diagrams and such, making it way longer than for most people to understand things (I have to write and read everything) but at least it works. I would never have understood that if I didn't utterly fail my classes at uni so I'm glad it happened that early in my life.
Dude yes. I have been that *talented* kid, but in college I hit a brick wall. I had the hardest time getting used to studying hard, but using my discipline I gained from weightlifting, I became a good student. I started to love mathematics again and became confident enough to pursue it. Anyways, thanks for the great content!
Spot on video. Growing up I was always told I was "smart". Coupled with this I figured out the education system rather fast and was able to get honors without a whole lot of determined and diligent work. When a difficult or different concept came along that I didn't understand I avoided it because I still could get honors without working on those difficult concepts. Add to this I was way too much of a linear thinker. When I went to University I got my rear end handed to me. My school chum who had a stellar work ethic completed his degree in engineering and has gone on I am sure to be a multimillionaire. We both had close grades before engineering. I had an entitled view of my abilities when there was no basis for this entitlement. To the parents out there if you want your children to be successful do not inflate their egos by telling them they are smart. At an early age instill habits of discipline and regularity. My parents allowed me to quit as soon as I didn't like things. Primping up your children with undue accolades is much like the foolish grandparent who buys the large slurpee for their already overweight grandchild. This grandparent may be giving what the immature child "wants" but in the end they are on a crash course with diabetes. The same is true by sugaring up your children by stroking their ego and pride with undue praise and commendation - you will give them educational "diabetes". One of my goals in life is to someday retake University year one Calculus and pass it. Thanks to the Math Sorcerer for an excellent video.
My parents were the opposite. They always told me that my results were acceptable even when I got a 95 in Math. They were proud behind my back to others. I kept pushing through school, engineering & im now pursuing MBA. I don't know what else to do other than study lol.
I had the domestic abuse childhood so looking back I had bad PTSD. I didn't do anything in high school, not because I didn't want to but because I was in a daze of confusion. I worked at a small town bakery and watched a guy work the ovens for 30 years for minimum wage and it hit me "I don't want to do this". I was in the lowest 10% of the class and actually met the guy that was on the bottom and he laughed at it. I was in the crab bucket. I went to the school counselor and she told me it didn't look good and no way could I get in to Michigan Tech. One Saturday I got into my beat-up car and drove to the school and walked into the 2 year associate program Dean's office. I introduced myself and told him I didn't want to be in manual labor the rest of my life. He was professional and polite and we talked for a while and I shook his hand and drove home. The following Monday the school counselor called my name over the intercom and I went to her office. She had a smile on her face and asked "so how did you like my husband"? I didn't even put the two names together to be honest. She said he signed a letter that stated if I kept my grades above a C, I would get a special wavier to allow me to enter the 2 year mechanical engineering program and if I kept my grades above a C, I could stay. I never worked so hard in my life but got all A's and B's the first quarter and I was working part time at the bakery. I found that the ASEE major was more interesting so I changed majors, because I worked, it took me 3 years to get my Associated degree. Since I had time, I took the first EE Calculus course because I loved Calculus (it was so amazing to me). Well I got a D and I have to say limits was a tough concept and pictured running over Cauchy with my car. My boss came up to me after I graduated and told me to get an BSEE since he was one. I filled out the application and didn't realize my GPA was 1.9 and whoever got the application went out of their way to write me a long letter chastising me about being so stupid to think I would get into MTU BSEE program with such a low GPA. Well I got into my car and knocked on the Dean's door and told him my situation and he said he couldn't justify letting me in. I got a little more passionate and he smiled and signed a wavier and I was in (he said "I had the right attitude"). The next day my boss came up to me and said he got a call from the Dean - they went to school together and were friends. He patted me on the back and said good job. Working and the EE course work was 10 times more difficult and I never was able to get more than B's and some D's during the holiday months because work was so much more difficult. I finally had a breakdown and had to stop working, I managed to get just enough money to finish my last year just concentrating on school work (I was done with the homework by 5:00 everyday). I studied with a guy and helped him but he always got an A and I got a B and he would laugh because I knew the material better than he did. I studied to learn and I realize now that you also need to study to pass tests (not a bad thing). I had time to take extra courses so I signed up for a course in solid state physics because I wanted to learn more about semiconductors. I was rejected and walked into the teacher’s office and asked if I could sit in and listen, he asked why I just didn't take the course and I told them they rejected the request. He said follow me, and he went in the admin office and when he came out he handed me a signed paper and said “here you’re in my course”. That was the only A I got in the BSEE program. I think because on many levels it was engaging, it was a challenge, and I had a passion for the subject matter. Looking back I think many people are just distracted and/or bored, it’s not that they are stupid. You defiantly have to be able to relax, now when I study it seems so much easier, and the childhood anxiety has passed. Another thing is to try and get as many books on the subject as you can. I found Morris Cline’s calculus book and it has several chapters that are easy to understand verses my other books but I still use Earl Swokowski’s Calculus book since that is what I studied in school. I ended up writing firmware for embedded system’s (using mostly the C Language) and it has been a challenging career that pays well. Some of my firmware is running on medical devices and TV remote controls. Find something you like to do that pays well if you don’t see yourself doing pure research. I would have loved to work in semiconductor research but it just didn’t work out and it's not worth the risk going to far into debt. Writing firmware allowed me the freedom to move on when managers abused their authority, the work got too boring, or the tech would be a dead end in a few years (like Windows CE). Don’t be a camper and stay in the first job you get. My first job was doing EMP testing for the Air Force and I just couldn’t see staying in that job for my entire career even though it was a great first job for me. Keep your job solving skills up to date. I’ve read many resumes from engineers that coasted at companies like Motorola that were stuck when the mass layoffs happened. Just thought I would share my story in case a younger person can benefit from it.
I was working on my math while listening to this video simultaneously, and I felt compelled to put down my pencil to express my appreciation for these videos. For the first time in the realm of mathematics, I feel like I've found people who resonate with my feelings. It's easy to encounter individuals who either love math and are good at it, or despise math, struggle with it, and wish to avoid it at all costs. However, I believe many here represent a unique intersection of these experiences. We are people who are interested in improving and perhaps admit we are not that proficient yet. It's comforting to discover a place where I feel understood, a place where being less skilled doesn't equate to stupidity or increase the likelihood of giving up. Thank you, professor.
exactly what I feel, so thank you for putting this so well into words. I can’t wait to show others my hopefully better results in math, by using the knowledge I discovered from this TH-cam channel, but also the commentsection here.
As a struggling student in mathematics, I can totally relate. Having unsatisfying grade while working hard is super frustrating. But when I imagine how I improved because of all my efforts, it just gives me more motivation to continue like that and put even more effort. I'm even working math on holidays to get better for my last bachelor year. But I'm affraid to not be able to get good enough for a Ph.D. I wonder if Ph.D. and research (in math particularily) is reserved for talented people only. Thoughts on that? Thanks for this video, that's what I needed to hear.
Thank you for your video and advice! I agree that talent is not the only determining factor of success. What you said resonates really well with me. I am currently a student trying to finish with all my math prerequisites before pursuing physics. 😅 I struggle with schizoaffective disorder and I’m not proficient in algebra yet. I agree that with grit and determination, one can overcome most obstacles. I will do my best. Thank you! 🙏
In seventh grade the solving of algebraic equations became like a game to me. Thus a lifetime of enjoying the challenges of mathematics. Or perhaps the enjoyment of manipulating numbers as a way of understanding the world.
I have seen this dynamic in the music world. I was naturally talented on the cello. I stood out in college in this way. I had fellow students who were less talented, but they were disciplined. I graduated and came back a couple years later to say hi to my fellow students and I was surprised to see that they had become awesome cellists! Their hard work paid off.
What you talk about in this video is super inspiring. I think I'll come back to this video again and again when I'm going through dark times. Proud to be an underdog.
I used to be a progamer, long story. The jist was it took me years and over 15,000 hours to get on the level of someone who could get to where I was in months. I was always frustrated with my prospects, wonderinng what they had that I didn't. Eventually I learned to make this my strength though. I kept on improving in the thick of it where talent hit a wall and shit got brutal. Resilience and grit was my strength. Ultimately I'm no longer a progamer, now I'm a biochemical engineering student. That time was not wasted though. I took with me that resilience and grit and I still use it as my strength as a student, and it turns out I have quite the aptitude for math. All I've ever really known was how to take a beating, but now I'm doing something different. That lesson was still so valuable, I wish everyone could experience it. I view being able to go where no one else wants to go as my talent, it's a skillset that trumps any other skillset.
I absolutely love your channel. All my life my parents kept telling me that I'm too stupid to learn anything and that I should probably just quit school. I kept struggling at maths, chemistry and physics the most, never getting any help. Only when I moved out and enrolled myself in an online high school, my grades went up and I just couldn't believe what was happening. Barely passed maths in elementary and junior high school, now I nearly got full marks. I want a degree in engineering but my parents voice is still too much present in my mind.
All learning, of any kind, comes down to exposure. If you expose yourself to it, you'll get better at it, if you don't, you won't. It's really that simple. Same principle with computing, as with language learning, or philosophy or economics.
I was gifted in most subjects until late high school/early college and then when I couldnt grasp something, i fell apart. Youre so right about discipline beating natural talent. Of course, when one can combine natural talent with dogged determination, thats where the real superstars come from.
I was the super smart kid with no discipline, so the talent didn't really take me very far at all. I'm in my mid-40s now, still smart, but have learned discipline and it makes such a difference in learning, even the things that I was already good at.
I had a very similar experiences like you did with just not getting it while younger. After my time in the service my view on what I could achieve changed. I was able to do things academically I would have never dared to attempt. I think it’s a mix of intelligence , luck, and being able to see it as a possibility. Now I watch math videos for fun..lol. The core of my message is , can you see yourself achieving if even just a little bit ? If you fail , fail better , fail all the way to the finish line if you have to.
I’m reminded of a famous quote by Calvin Coolidge. ‘Silent’ Cal never said much, but when he did, it was to the point: “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” -Calvin Coolidge
I was always the underdog in the discrete math class. I have never had a class where I had to prove stuff, and the skills that required us to break down the problem and prove the statement just weren't there yet. So I failed the class, went through countless other classes where I again had to prove . And finally after some time it just came naturally to me, no matter the course, no matter the problem.
The experience of hitting a wall is even worse for those of us with natural talent in mathematics as well as ADHD. I was undiagnosed until my late twenties because school came easily and I didn't display any hyperactivity symptoms. It wasn't until I got to complex variables that I was challenged by a math class. Unfortunately, not only was I inexperienced when it came to responding to setbacks in learning, but I also didn't possess the time management skills to respond even if I knew how. Fast forward 25 years and I'm taking abstract 400 level math classes. I got triggered hearing that discipline is what it takes to succeed when the content gets challenging, because I can and do work hard, I'm just horribly inefficient. I watch lectures and I zone out, especially when everything is done abstractly and no concrete examples are provided. I watch youtube videos, but most of them are too dry to hold my interest. I try to read my text, and the information goes in my eyes and out my ears. Of course that's if I even get through more than a page before getting distracted. I take notes, and that helps, but it's tedious and doesn't necessarily help me understand. The only thing that ever really helps me learn math is concrete problem solving with lots of repetition, but it seems like this happens less and less in higher math courses. Has anyone here overcome the double whammy of hitting a wall when things get challenging AND dealing with ADHD symptoms? I'd love some new strategies to try.
Not sure if this would help, but from reading your post I get the feeling that there may be a disconnect between reading/hearing (at face value) vs understanding what you hear (getting to the meaning BEHIND what you see/hear at face value) As someone with ADHD myself, I tend to hyper focus (and also not be able to control how focused I get, sometimes it’s really intense, sometimes not at all) on certain things…and in some school systems we are unfortunately trained to learn and memorize things verbatim, which is although “efficient” when conveying information, limits its usefulness to the receiver after it is conveyed. I suspect that you might be suffering from a similar problem in which your process focuses too much on the “finite” things (such as the exact wording used, or graph, etc), and thus shirk the “translation” to a “language” YOU can understand (even if it doesn’t look like it’s something anybody else can). That’s why we are at the same time told to paraphrase, as it both converts the message to something digestible and usable to you, but also helps imprint it in your mind at a deeper level. I’m sure we already do this to an extent in every scenario, but maybe it’s worth trying to put more weight to that end rather than the “verbatim” part. This might both better appeal to your interest levels & also really stretch out your understanding of a subject if it isn’t fully sinking in. This process isn’t easy, and in my experience can take a lot more time and experiment to develop into a system that works for each individual (heck, I’m still working on it myself). In our case I’m afraid there’s more to it than simply developing and having discipline, as it’s doubly if not even more important to focus in “the right places”. Instead of focusing on the FINITE things, try to think more in the direction about how it “feels like it means” to YOU as a starting point (pardon the lack of a better wording), thus tapping into the infinite permutations of conveying the same message and picking out the ones that feel most intuitive to you (after all, language & math symbols and all that are arbitrary finite constructs that we human beings came up with to relay information). People with ADHD tend to be more controlled by how they feel than by what they think. In a learning process we largely deem to be one that should be at times solely driven by logic, if we can really tap in to using what we “feel” properly in combination with our individual learning process, it might even boost our effectiveness beyond that of people without ADHD. By “feeling”, I’m not just talking about the usual connotation of emotions, but other things that you subjectively experience that words can’t seem to adequately describe. This could be notably the very things distracting you when you are trying to learn and maintain your interest…the lack of interest may indicate that it’s simply pointed elsewhere…and possibly quite sharply. Imagine if we could somehow leverage that sharp interest in something else to really push our progress. Either there’s a way to combine that with what we have to focus on in the moment…or you may just be focusing on the wrong thing (maybe that particular mathematical topic isn’t for you, at least at that point in time…but then if you’re in a school system in which you have to follow the course pace, that is a little less fortunate…which is why I’ve found it so much more rewarding to access all these self-learning resources online right now) This has been my personal experience at least, and I might have gotten a little out there & I’m not sure if this addresses your conundrums, but if anything isn’t clear to you I’m more than happy to try to elaborate
For more specifics regarding ADHD I find that Dr. K at the channel HealthyGamerGG has some really helpful videos explaining the mechanics of ADHD and how to work with/around it
Yeah....Didn't realize that I had ADHD and Working Memory Deficits ,and I couldn't pass an intro to Calculus class , even taking the course 4 times !...... I kept forgetting what I was "solving for" when i was trying to figure out rates of change....was a Physical deficit in my memory !.....its like not being able to see the colour blue. Flunked out of college after that !......now in my fifties, it doesn't bother me, I am who Am !
I’m self-studying calc 1 right now after hitting a wall years ago in college. Finding a tutor to work with me once a week has been an absolute game-changer. If you have ADHD I cannot recommend it enough.
Intelligence itself is not an accomplishment. It is a tool for accomplishing something. I have become what some refer to as a “gifted burnout.” I learned obsessively until I started college, but never developed the discipline to *prove* my knowledge to my teachers. My first mediocre grade was a B- in chemistry and my first failure I believe was Calculus 1 at SLU. I could understand both, but I didn’t care to look away from my screen for long enough to complete the workloads. Long-form projects and papers especially pain me because of that procrastination cycle. I am currently writing a paper due tomorrow night while distracting my mind with TH-cam. At least it’s not the night of. Here is my advice for other young gifted burnouts, current or soon-to-be: Exercise as much as you know you should. Eat as much as you know you should. Sleep however much you know you should. Don’t let yourself scour the Internet. Quit every addiction you have and replace them with productive hobbies that are genuinely valuable to you. Cheap entertainment is, by definition, not valuable. I have learned these lessons through tears and miserable, barren years alone that I would relive differently in a heartbeat.
This video is brilliant, because it goes beyond the common sense of "if you are not smart enough, just keep trying". Like, I have never realized that not being smart enough means I have experience dealing with frustration - something talented people lack. Great insights here!
“It's not about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward.” -- Rocky Balboa
More excellent content, mate! I love that your channel isn't only about math, but also about the emotional component of learning and motivation. Thank you. :)
I knew this guy in Stourbridge, England. He was kind of a goth, very social awkward, with quite poor articulation. He turned out to be studying pure maths I think. To look at him you wouldn't have believed it. I guess we get different talents. The problem is that society rewards certain talents more than others which then puts pressure on kids at school. You might be a great musician but you aren't still going to need maths for university so the pressure builds and then of course you can't learn as you are under stress.
I feel like i cant focus and learn anything these days. I should have decent genetics but idk. Im a chronic quitter since failing a sys admin course miserably years ago. And i mean *pathetically* , it was a rectal violation, 2 weeks in i had 0 clue what was goin on. I even ragequit driving school for everyones safety
me too... i can't focus for more than 20 mins..... but Maths Sorcererhas mentioned about patience and I think that may be the answer. As an example I have been running for 10 years doing two months training getting injured and repeating the cycle.... was in a rush to speed up .... this year tried slow running now 6 months in no injuries and running patiently and making more progress than ever..... the brain is just another muscle... so perhaps same principle applies.....
Our long-term development is ultimately a gamble. We never know if we've already unlocked all of our genetic potential or if the best is still yet to come. Plus we usually experience lots of ups and downs instead of any straightforward linear pathway to progress, so don't mistake that as a reason to get discouraged. On top of that, it's really hard to tell exactly where natural ability ends and where hard work begins. Whether we're talking about brains or muscle, a person's genes generally give a broad range of potential. So never stop trying to become the best version of yourself.
I’m a dude with adhd I’ve always struggled with school from first grade all the way to my last day of high school when I left high school I still had sophomore credits I dropped out twice cause I was tired of it and I let all those shitty teachers get to my head telling me I won’t amount to nothing in my life. I got involved with the wrong crowd and got involved with drugs and alcohol because I didn’t believe in myself I lost all hope in myself I’m 25 now and holy shit life is hitting me like a ton of bricks, I want to change it, so I’ve made the choice to get my GED and go to school and prove to myself that I can do it I wanna learn physics and I know it’s a hard subject but I find it very interesting. I’ve been practicing my math and learning little by little by myself and holy shit I never realized how easy algebra could be I’ve been refreshing myself on all basic math stuff and I’m enjoying it a lot I never thought I’d see the day of me doing math by myself without anyone asking me to do. This is a new chapter in my life and I’m ready I know I’m gonna struggle hella, fuck it life’s a risk carnal.
Ah...College Physics... This is when I learned that a science class and a math class are not the same thing just because math is involved in both. There were so few people by the end of it. I guess it was a wake up call for a lot of other people too, maybe even in that very particular regard. Funny thing is I remember a lot of stuff from that class; forces, friction, how they interact. It really did give me a better understanding of the Physics of the world.
All my life ive been the "gifted one" and everyone would tell me that hard work would still surpass my talent. I believed it then, i believe it now but i have no work ethic even after 11 years of school.
I just got my results for finals. I failed the majority of my modules. It's hard to believe I was a top achiever in my high school. But engineering is just so hard, it introduced me to failure and just keeps pounding me. The hardest thing is having to explain to my mom why I keep failing. Sometimes I want to die so bad, all my peers are ahead in life and I'm still stuck in undergrad. I don't whether to give up, or whether to continue it's a lot!
You have to keep on pushing through. Life is full of ups and downs. Don’t compare yourself to others since we all have our own journeys in life. Just give it your all and you will succeed🙏🏾.
Engineering is about sweating, sacrificing every weekend in order to keep on track of subjects, it's about that. But if you put the blood, you'll learn to put the work for what you want. Keep going, seek strength in God and have confidence in your right arm, we are all gonna make it.
Depression completely ruined my academic life , and now all my peers are at least a decade ahead of me. You’re not alone, my story is probably alot worse.
Not a math person but I love the advice your giving. I do think we all have talents but for different things. But I really do believe where your heart draws you can give you not only the the best fulfilment, but also the greatest lessons. Even if it doesn't work out for you.
In high school I was a mediocre student. I often blamed my own intelligence and traits. As I approach the end of college I’ve had some family death and paternal sickness that drastically changed how hard I applied myself to studies. I’ve been a straight A student for two years in university now, and I roughly commit 15-24 hours per week to my studies. My issue was never learning and understanding, but rather my issue was how I applied rigor to studying… it was discipline. I found it easier to embrace my own studies now that I know what I want to do as well, and with the passion that came with my studies it made it easier to want to study, for my own future, stability, and career.
Success = Talent * Effort^Focus This applies to learning Math, Physics, etc., just as it applies to learning to play music, a sport or learning a foreign language.
Another great video. I think the importance of patience can't be underestimated.... with modern life all being about speed that acts against being patient and taking the time needed.
i've only done the first semester of pure math and i passed with an A (the equivalent in my country), but i also like to learn on my own and i've come across excercises that i just can't solve. Then, when I check the answer, the solution is an argument so complex or creative that I could've never thought of it. So this scares me, I'm afraid of coming across this kind of excercises and not being able to solve them or even to come close to the solution.
I am a failure at life. But I still never give up. I am always learning new things..like quantum physics,genetics,mathematics, etc..Maybe one day i will get a good job in genetics
Thank you for the inspiration. That story about your student always being there and putting in effort really touched me as well as your own struggles. You’re doing such a great service and I’ll be sure to spread the message ❤
I see this a lot with Natural Leaders vs Learned Leaders (when it comes to SUCCESSFUL leaders). Natural leaders just have an innate leadership ability, but they don't know why. They don't know what they are doing right. They don't know how to improve. They become victims of their early success. Learned Leaders have to try and fail to finally figure out what does and doesn't work, and why. They learn what works and how to improve, and in the long run they outpace the natural leaders.
I can confirm what he says as I have first-hand experience of this. I have been marked as "gifted", "talented", etc. from my childhood, and things came really easy to me. I had the worst work-ethic. I studied for some hours outside class for tests and would ace those tests- scoring much better than people who worked for weeks. This gave me a lot of confidence and I never learned to work really hard for tests. I was hit hard in college. Because, although I'd score the highests in quizzes, and would 'get' things faster than anyone else, I would bomb the final tests and other people got much ahead of me. I have a tested IQ of , and yet there are many people who are earning more money than me, and are more prosperous than me in life. Because they had good work ethics. One thing I learned in a hard way: you have to work really hard on things to get ahead in life- even if you don't like those things. You cannot be choosy. If you like Calculus, and not Complex Analysis- you need to study both anyway to get good grades, and good grades will help you land better higher-ed opportunities. So, learn from me: BEING REALLY SMART WON'T MAKE YOU AUTOMATICALLY SUCCESSFUL. You have to work really hard, and work hard on things that you don't even like. That's life.
Thanks for the encouraging videos 🙏🏼 I just turned 50, and I’m now in second year of a physics and philosophy major. I’ve always loved math, and intended to go back ‘one day’ but wow, calculus and physics are seriously kicking my butt.. I’ve failed 2 courses for the first time ever, and it’s discouraging. I’m persistent though, and happy I came here for motivation
I’ve always been annoyed by the worship of math and math ability. Our society teaches that being mathematically gifted is synonymous with being smart and the lack of math talent equates to being dumb. The matter is seldom stated so bluntly but that is what people actually think. I’m here to tell you that you can succeed impressively without being a math star. I work for a systems engineering company and I trade on verbal fluency and analytical reasoning ability (but not math) to get results in the communication technology subjects that people around me struggle to accomplish, at all. I’m good at nearly everything I touch, except math (beyond arithmetic). I also managed to graduate from Stanford University despite my “relative” math deficiency.
I don't believe in talent. I believe that each brain is wired differently for multiple reasons, especially due to environment and individual experiences. We unconsciously choose how we resonate with things. Intelligence seems to resonate with our interiority. A calm and positive mind, free from doubts and worries, allowed to go deep into a state of persistent and silent concentration, can learn everything super fast! Some of us, unconsciously wire their mind around things that require rigour, precision and order. Others do the contrary. I think it's unconscious.
I was always fascinated with space and tech but my teachers always told me I was too dumb at math to study physics…I’m a 4th yr PhD student in theoretical physics. I didn’t start my studies until I was 33. My secret? I just studied hard…lots of work and effort
But what if the talented also worked as hard as the underdog? Sure the talented ones gets too comfortable with their skills and eventually loses because they didn't develop discipline. But what if they do take a lesson from their failure and learn the necessary discipline to succeed? Not every talented becomes a sore loser after they take their first loss, and those who don't will often blow everyone out of the water. There are talented people like Goku from DBZ who loves doing hard stuff just for the sake of it, and there is a reason why he's way too much of a strong character in fiction. No matter how much you work hard, there is a talented and naturally gifted person who also work as hard as you and beat you in every respect. Heck, being naturally gifted, they don't necessarily need to invest that much time in learning than those who put so much effort and time in their endeavor. At the end of the day, it depends on how much you love the things you're doing. Are you willing to put 16 hrs a day learning/working on something that a naturally talented could master within just 5 hrs in same day? There is no right/wrong answer to it.
the other angle to consider is that the education sstm is build for only specific types of brains to succeed, the speed /the structure /the switching btween subjects /materials/etc. might not fit all, regardles of ther timemanagement/effort/and other executive skills.
It's important to study the history of one's field: knowing the struggles of those who preceeded you. Get your ego out of the way: when Maxwell was my age, he'd been dead for 12 years!
this is just manipulation to make you enroll in uni. I studied for 10 years as hard as I could and I couldn’t come even near a talented student that worked 4x less. After 10 years I gave up because you cannot fight nature, maybe only in naruto u can…
In the netherlands we have a system that if you fail a certain central exam youd be banished to lower tiers of education. I spent my 4 years on so called VMBO. I was extremely demotivated and I never encountered any math. After like 10 years i was a bit interested and I learned all the high school basics in like a half year. I went to university and i was crushed i could not do anything at all i suddenly had to write proofs which i never had done and i had to stop since i was not used with math being hard. I sometimes hold alot of grudges towards teachers since they failed to recognize my mathematical abilities and the system in the netherlands that basicly banished me from learning anything. Next year i am gonna try it again and i am already learning how to write proofs so i hope i can just accept that i won't get things fast.
i was one of those talanted students, currently in my late 20s, I'm trying to learn a disciplined way of studying, life has humbled me many times in the way you describe in this video. It gets to the point where I'm uncertain whether I'm even able to learn anything at all, but I am slowly improving by relearning basic concepts before chewing through more serious textbooks.
Up until after taking differential equations, I was smart enough that I could wait until three days before the exam to do all the homework/review work and do great. That said, it was uniformly a hellish nightmare of stress and burnout that I would not wish on anyone. Talent really only takes you as far as you're willing to work.
Regarding learning mathematics, I suspect that for one person who's genuinely not good at it there's another dozen who were just convinced (by parents, teachers, peers, whatever) that "you'll be bad in learning mathematics, better do humanities".
“ Nine times out of ten, dogged persistence WILL win over natural talent.” Gen. Sams USAF approx. yr. 1982. Having read this quote has rallied my efforts over and over throughout the years.
I love these videos, shorts included, they are so informative and helpful. I am glad I found your channel I found it while taking my differential equations class, a class I struggles in a lot, and your lectures proved to be super helpful to me in understanding some of the material and I passed the class! These videos about learning and any other topic you talk about are all so encouraging. This videos in particular is something I needed to hear because I often feel that I am not smart enough or good enough to keep with my classmates, I am an electrical engineering major, but with your encouraging videos and the other people in my life I have been doing my best, and in my opinion excelling in college even if some of my grades don't reflect that lol. Thank you for doing what you are doing!
The guy in the thumbnail is looking into a mirror but his reflection is not a true reflection, as much he is looking into an enchanted mirror and his reflection is a malicious spirit from the mirror world.
Great video. Very good points. Never saw "Rudy," but always thought of "Gattaca" with Ethan Hawke on that same inspirational level. Gattaca is about a man with genetic flaws living in a world where people are genetically engineered and given advantages. He has to break some of the rules in that society in order to have the opportunity to accomplish his dream.
I'm not sure why since I knew eve you said in this video, but this was really inspiring for some reason. I swear I've heard this countless times... I must be in a critical point in my life. I can sense it.
If you're too smart and talented and spoiled with As, you should be dealing with harder problems, tougher challenges, or something to strengthen your mental muscles.
I have i questions. Whenever i want to read a new math book, I feel like I need to go over the prerequisites again and it takes a lot of time, and when i finish reviewing the prerequisites I often loose my motivation to read the book, how can I solve this problem?
Push yourself “to failure” as they say when lifting weights. This applies DOUBLY if you think you’re talented or really good. Don’t be satisfied to get an A if it comes easy to you. If it comes easy to you, go into the deeper end until it’s not so easy. A helpful exercise: find someone who thinks they are bad at what you’re good at but who genuinely wants to succeed. Tutor them. Try to instill them with confidence and help them succeed. Consider their success your success and their failure you’re failure. I guarantee you will think about your subject in a whole new way and you will learn how to deal with setbacks and failures and really appreciate your successes. Then take a student who is not so enthusiastic and try with them.
I'm a real world example is this, not a genius, but I've always been good at mathematics. Recently my maths marks have been declining it's due to lack of practice and effort I haven't really been consistently practicing math in high school and a few people got higher marks then me this year. So yes hard work is more important than talent.
In school, math has always been something difficult for me. Now I do it as a hobby. With every problem I solve, I become smarter, more determined. Sorry for my poor English, it's not my mother tongue. The Math Sorcerer - you're really the best👍
I like that you give some real life examples. Some people are naturally gifted,they reach their goals without much effort. Of course we are intelligent,talented but lack patience and discipline, resulting in failure.
Indeed that does happen all the time, Because simply put, having talent does not mean one is obligated to use it. And if you stop using it then knowledge about it will degrade. Then again information processing always has been a tedious process so most people long quit before the point in wich they should. Oh well when it comes down to the Boolean of learning a lot of people just do not know where to start. And since its way to much work to write down people just fail to learn. Example: I wanna buy a cheap banana in the grocery shop. Boolean: Do i need it? No then dont bother, Yes then move on. Do i got money? No then dont bother, Yes then move on. Do i have time to be getting it? (Same as the 2 above) Do i need to get other things in that shop? (Another one) What do i want to use it for? (Pancakes means need more then just banana) How long will it take me and is that worth it to get it now? Cheap brand or expensive? Is it spoiled or not? Can i make sure it does not spoil before i can use it? I want banana but does my gf also want one? (or parent or anyone you care for.) If yes repeat all again... If no Then wich grocery shop? Is that cheaper and thus worth it? Can i get it in a discount now or should i wait until it is discounted? Buy in grocery or wholesale while at it? Can i transport all that to my home? Do i even know how to prepare it? And finally, Do i have a way to get rid of the peels? Assuming you went trough all that for just 1 banana you get the point. Learning is just putting a category on chunks of these questions so you can answer it more easy. Example: Can i cook? if no skip all straight to the semi last question. Wich is answered based on data stored in the memory based on previous rotations of this question. So if you never tried it then no. If you did try cooking then you can skip the wich ingredients, is it spoiled, and can i prepare it? As those 3 fall under the category of knowing how to cook and how to identify spoiled food. Since people can read and learn their whole life but not categorize said info they will never be able to use it in practise. After all someone that has a whole library in his head but has to search 1 line in all that wont be giving a good answer soon. And will opt to default what makes sense to him based on the majority of similar situations he knows about in the short period of time he has to look trough his/her memories. Its all logistic gate separation logic anyway. And since people forget it is done this way most people stop learning when they turn into teens. Though most of the time, people just give up on learning anyway thinking its not going to be useful in practise as they do not have the patience to keep doing it until they visually notice if it matters. Wich usually is way way later in ones life. I came i was born, I stayed and was informed. I go and i learn. I fail and return. I try until i cry. And i will stop the day that i will die. Anyway, have a nice day.
I think we need to talk about the inverse of this. No matter how hard you work, there are subjects/abilities that you are going to master or be good at. Which is okay.
For many parts of my life I was one of those quote on quote talented kid. I aced exams no problem but today here I am learning the ways of effort. I must say, the number of people that have surpassed me whom I thought was mediocre at best must be counted with more than 2 hands. We really take things for granted when they're easy so I really respect and fear people who are just driven and locked tf in.
Your videos are trulling inspiring for me. I've entered college last year, with an age of 26 years old. And, being at a public university, I'm struggling a lot with math classes. But I do love math, it is beautiful and I hope someday I can be very goot at it. Thank you for the advices!
Hi, been through my primary and secondary school years and i never and still haven't been diagnosed with a learning difficulty. Got predicted grades: 1 grade higher than a standard pass here in the uk (which is grade 5 in GCSE), which is shocking. However, I never put the effort in nor cared for education so i didn't know and still don't know my potential, but i can say this; I do struggle to remember, and retain information fast. It sucks hearing that genetics kinda determines how your life will pan out, to some extent, but you'll never see me give in, and that's all you need. My advice? Block the noise from everyone else, because it's you against you in this life. Everyone, unless you have a serious brain injury, can learn. I believe that when people mention "natural talent", or "natural ability", they mean that someone can understand, retain, and memorise information faster than others, but the factual thing is: everyone learns at different paces. No, you are not stupid. You are only stupid if you label yourself as stupid. Like i previously stated, anyone can learn. It literally just takes longer for others to learn and reach that same academic destination as with everyone, but with hard work, anyone can get there. I'm about to start my Degree and it's a bit daunting as i have neither of what every other university student has, which are: (GCSE's and A-Levels) which are just entry requirements needed to just get accepted into a university alone, but i believe i will accomplish my goals and ultimately, that's all it comes down to. You can do it. Self-doubt is powerful and like i said at the beginning: life is all mental. If you have control of your mind, you can achieve academic success and can-be in university doing a degree like the rest. Yes, it's hard when people are just naturally good at academia, but it only means they can learn faster. Keep at it and never give in, and if you don't achieve your academic goals despite actually trying, like i said before; unless you have some major brain injury and have no clue how to remember the word: "and", then it has nothing to do with your ability but more your mental state, and how you approached the task in hand. Also, everyone has a different learning style so it's ultimately mostly down to non-genetical factors that contribute to academic success as apposed to just genetics, lol. Anyone can achieve academic success. I was one of those that did beyond terrible throughout school, and got predicted grades that were beyond terrible, whilst watching everyone else do well for themselves, but then again, i didn't put the effort in, so i'm one of those that didn't know their potential and still doesn't. Moral of the story is: you can't let it bring you down. Like i said, life and academic success is all mental. If you believe others opinions and your own self-doubt, it can seriously affect your life and you'll never achieve anything. It's all mental, Keep going and never ever give in. Your worth more than what you realise, and that's something most people need to hear because it's very true.
And even those who have sustained a brain injury can perform better than the ones who are totally healthy (those who haven't stained a brain injury. So, just like the quote from Feynman goes: "Sit down and calculate".
Reminds me of Issac Asimov's explanation of why he pursued Chem instead of Physics. For him all math was easy and required no effort...until he reached calculus and then he said he felt like he had to work to understand it (like the rest of us mortals). He so didn't like the feeling of having to work to understand something that he immediately gave it up.
I'm not a math enthusiast, but I enjoy your videos. They are usually applicable to other courses of study too. This one made a solid point. Growing up, I was naturally gifted at a handful of subjects, and could muddle my way through the others. Chose not to stray from the things I was good at for a long time. Once the years started passing and I started trying to learn things I was *more* interested in but *not* naturally talented in, it was truly sobering. It's been a hard road, because in addition to whatever new things I've chosen to study, I've had to learn a "meta-skill" alongside it, which is not giving up (which is what I always used to do when something didn't come naturally). It's been humbling, but in the best possible sense.
No one is talented , their parents did 50% of their work , they are just working on their 50% of work. Can you supress them ? Answer is NO , if they keep working hard but one day they will stop and your little effort will work there.
The Stanford University offered a course online from 2014: "How to learn math for students". They noticed the difference between those who did and those who didn't like math is the experiences they had. Sometimes they thought " we're not fast enough", but when you work with many mathematicians, they are not usually fast math thinkers. They are deep mathematical thinkers.
Marketing is all that matters, though. Without it, even the most intelligent people in ANY subject will remain invisible until their deaths. It is what it is.
@@Novastar.SaberCombat thank you for your insights. While marketing is important, it is not the sole determinant of visibility and success.
Is the course still available? If yes where can i find it?
@@cottoncandy7847 Google "Stanford GSE-YEDUC115-S"
it's a problem with how maths is tested in school as a timed, rehearsed thing, facilitating more fast rote learning and less deep and thorough understanding. the former gives more marks, generally. If anyone was a student I know what they'd be prioritising...
I graduated highschool in 1996 with a D average. Math was my worst subhect. I joined the navy in 1999 and spent 10 years there. I went back to college and majored in mathematics in 2009. Today, im a lead electrochemical engineer in the Lithium-ion battery industry. Anything is possible if you work hard enough!
i wonder do you think mathematics is a learnable skill or will some just never get it?
Absolutely a learnable skill by anyone. Just got to put in the work.
@@theeamazingkrabb5358 I think some people believe that you are either good at maths or you’re not;but I think that really a good excuse not to work hard.
@@oliver2001 no that is a bad excuse. You will never improve with that kind of mindset
@@None-if3mo no I was just wondering for others.i find mathematics easy and have never really struggled.i was just saying about my peers so I could better motivate them 👍
As a person who aced almost everything in high school, the university really taught me this lesson. I had never failed in my studies as I did in the University. It was a really humbling experience. It has made me appreciate the process of failure more and has helped me improve my work ethic in my quest to become a robotics engineer.
University was difficult for me. Because I had to kick out the notion that this was just like a high school course where I could just pick up an assignment and be done with it in 15 minutes.
I knew self-studying was necessary. But I never, truly, internalized this. And no matter the talent, if I spent no time studying for the test...I didn't do well on the test.
whats your plan to become a robotics engineer? i havent done projects currently in my undergrad i was super distracted, so i plan to do a masters in robotics..
I had a different experience. I had a perfect "D" average in high school, but college was a breeze.
This comment almost perfectly describes me. Due to my natural intelligence, school always came easy to me and so I was a straight A student until my parents got divorced, which is when I moved to a new place in 8th grade.
I can't say for sure why, but I lost interest in school completely after that.
I stopped doing the majority of my homework besides the big projects, and I almost never studied. Yet, because of my ability to ace my quizzes and tests without studying at all, my scores on the big projects that I did do, and the multitude of honors and AP classes that I took that give a +1 to the numbers used in the GPA calculation, I still finished high school with like a 3.5 GPA (not impressive, based on what I was capable of, but good enough, considering how little effort I put and all the 0's I got for hw).
This did nothing to build my discipline or my work ethic. I went into college with the same lack of care or effort, at the University of Illinois. I can tell you that college was a different experience. It was humbling after I was on the verge of failing out of the school due to not attending more than half my classes and getting numerous C's. I ended up transferring out and taking community college courses for a year and staying at home while my mom worked on building back up my confidence and teaching me about not giving up. Round two at university went much, much better and I graduated a few years later.
And yet, I ran into a similar issue when I went into the work force and I had to learn the same lesson all over again smh. I regret having to learn this lesson twice, but I have thoroughly learned it now. Talent alone can cover for a lot and take you pretty high, but without determination and effort, you can easily fall when you're near the top.
Personally, uni made me realize how much of a mess I mentally am, in high school and before (though I had the best grades everywhere), I could never understand why some thing clicked instantly and other things didn't, and why I couldn't understand things that didn't click instantly, no matter how hard I tried.
The way I understand how I think now, is that I have practically no working memory and ability to visualize things, and these things are absolutely crucial in the process of remembering, understanding and thinking, which means that if something is not easy enough that I can inherently grasp it, then there is no way that I can mentally understand it.
However, I can kind of replace my lack of working memory through heavy note-taking, and my lack of mental imagery through physical diagrams and such, making it way longer than for most people to understand things (I have to write and read everything) but at least it works.
I would never have understood that if I didn't utterly fail my classes at uni so I'm glad it happened that early in my life.
Dude yes. I have been that *talented* kid, but in college I hit a brick wall. I had the hardest time getting used to studying hard, but using my discipline I gained from weightlifting, I became a good student. I started to love mathematics again and became confident enough to pursue it. Anyways, thanks for the great content!
Spot on video. Growing up I was always told I was "smart". Coupled with this I figured out the education system rather fast and was able to get honors without a whole lot of determined and diligent work. When a difficult or different concept came along that I didn't understand I avoided it because I still could get honors without working on those difficult concepts. Add to this I was way too much of a linear thinker. When I went to University I got my rear end handed to me. My school chum who had a stellar work ethic completed his degree in engineering and has gone on I am sure to be a multimillionaire. We both had close grades before engineering. I had an entitled view of my abilities when there was no basis for this entitlement.
To the parents out there if you want your children to be successful do not inflate their egos by telling them they are smart. At an early age instill habits of discipline and regularity. My parents allowed me to quit as soon as I didn't like things. Primping up your children with undue accolades is much like the foolish grandparent who buys the large slurpee for their already overweight grandchild. This grandparent may be giving what the immature child "wants" but in the end they are on a crash course with diabetes. The same is true by sugaring up your children by stroking their ego and pride with undue praise and commendation - you will give them educational "diabetes". One of my goals in life is to someday retake University year one Calculus and pass it. Thanks to the Math Sorcerer for an excellent video.
My parents were the opposite. They always told me that my results were acceptable even when I got a 95 in Math. They were proud behind my back to others. I kept pushing through school, engineering & im now pursuing MBA. I don't know what else to do other than study lol.
I'm not smart. I'm a slow learner, but I don't lose because I'll fight till I win🤓
I had the domestic abuse childhood so looking back I had bad PTSD. I didn't do anything in high school, not because I didn't want to but because I was in a daze of confusion. I worked at a small town bakery and watched a guy work the ovens for 30 years for minimum wage and it hit me "I don't want to do this". I was in the lowest 10% of the class and actually met the guy that was on the bottom and he laughed at it. I was in the crab bucket. I went to the school counselor and she told me it didn't look good and no way could I get in to Michigan Tech. One Saturday I got into my beat-up car and drove to the school and walked into the 2 year associate program Dean's office. I introduced myself and told him I didn't want to be in manual labor the rest of my life. He was professional and polite and we talked for a while and I shook his hand and drove home. The following Monday the school counselor called my name over the intercom and I went to her office. She had a smile on her face and asked "so how did you like my husband"? I didn't even put the two names together to be honest. She said he signed a letter that stated if I kept my grades above a C, I would get a special wavier to allow me to enter the 2 year mechanical engineering program and if I kept my grades above a C, I could stay. I never worked so hard in my life but got all A's and B's the first quarter and I was working part time at the bakery. I found that the ASEE major was more interesting so I changed majors, because I worked, it took me 3 years to get my Associated degree. Since I had time, I took the first EE Calculus course because I loved Calculus (it was so amazing to me). Well I got a D and I have to say limits was a tough concept and pictured running over Cauchy with my car. My boss came up to me after I graduated and told me to get an BSEE since he was one. I filled out the application and didn't realize my GPA was 1.9 and whoever got the application went out of their way to write me a long letter chastising me about being so stupid to think I would get into MTU BSEE program with such a low GPA. Well I got into my car and knocked on the Dean's door and told him my situation and he said he couldn't justify letting me in. I got a little more passionate and he smiled and signed a wavier and I was in (he said "I had the right attitude"). The next day my boss came up to me and said he got a call from the Dean - they went to school together and were friends. He patted me on the back and said good job. Working and the EE course work was 10 times more difficult and I never was able to get more than B's and some D's during the holiday months because work was so much more difficult. I finally had a breakdown and had to stop working, I managed to get just enough money to finish my last year just concentrating on school work (I was done with the homework by 5:00 everyday). I studied with a guy and helped him but he always got an A and I got a B and he would laugh because I knew the material better than he did. I studied to learn and I realize now that you also need to study to pass tests (not a bad thing). I had time to take extra courses so I signed up for a course in solid state physics because I wanted to learn more about semiconductors. I was rejected and walked into the teacher’s office and asked if I could sit in and listen, he asked why I just didn't take the course and I told them they rejected the request. He said follow me, and he went in the admin office and when he came out he handed me a signed paper and said “here you’re in my course”. That was the only A I got in the BSEE program. I think because on many levels it was engaging, it was a challenge, and I had a passion for the subject matter. Looking back I think many people are just distracted and/or bored, it’s not that they are stupid. You defiantly have to be able to relax, now when I study it seems so much easier, and the childhood anxiety has passed. Another thing is to try and get as many books on the subject as you can. I found Morris Cline’s calculus book and it has several chapters that are easy to understand verses my other books but I still use Earl Swokowski’s Calculus book since that is what I studied in school. I ended up writing firmware for embedded system’s (using mostly the C Language) and it has been a challenging career that pays well. Some of my firmware is running on medical devices and TV remote controls. Find something you like to do that pays well if you don’t see yourself doing pure research. I would have loved to work in semiconductor research but it just didn’t work out and it's not worth the risk going to far into debt. Writing firmware allowed me the freedom to move on when managers abused their authority, the work got too boring, or the tech would be a dead end in a few years (like Windows CE). Don’t be a camper and stay in the first job you get. My first job was doing EMP testing for the Air Force and I just couldn’t see staying in that job for my entire career even though it was a great first job for me. Keep your job solving skills up to date. I’ve read many resumes from engineers that coasted at companies like Motorola that were stuck when the mass layoffs happened. Just thought I would share my story in case a younger person can benefit from it.
I hope other people read this too. Got a child who is wicked smart but isn’t willing to engage /focus . Your dedication is simply inspiring.
very cool story, can definitly relate to alot of stuff you mentioned, i think your social skills also played a major role in your academic career :)
I was working on my math while listening to this video simultaneously, and I felt compelled to put down my pencil to express my appreciation for these videos. For the first time in the realm of mathematics, I feel like I've found people who resonate with my feelings. It's easy to encounter individuals who either love math and are good at it, or despise math, struggle with it, and wish to avoid it at all costs. However, I believe many here represent a unique intersection of these experiences. We are people who are interested in improving and perhaps admit we are not that proficient yet. It's comforting to discover a place where I feel understood, a place where being less skilled doesn't equate to stupidity or increase the likelihood of giving up.
Thank you, professor.
exactly what I feel, so thank you for putting this so well into words. I can’t wait to show others my hopefully better results in math, by using the knowledge I discovered from this TH-cam channel, but also the commentsection here.
Never give up,
never, ever give up
- Jimmy V -
My high school track coach used to say, "hard work beats talent if talent doesn't work hard."
As a struggling student in mathematics, I can totally relate. Having unsatisfying grade while working hard is super frustrating. But when I imagine how I improved because of all my efforts, it just gives me more motivation to continue like that and put even more effort. I'm even working math on holidays to get better for my last bachelor year.
But I'm affraid to not be able to get good enough for a Ph.D. I wonder if Ph.D. and research (in math particularily) is reserved for talented people only. Thoughts on that?
Thanks for this video, that's what I needed to hear.
Thank you for your video and advice! I agree that talent is not the only determining factor of success. What you said resonates really well with me. I am currently a student trying to finish with all my math prerequisites before pursuing physics. 😅 I struggle with schizoaffective disorder and I’m not proficient in algebra yet. I agree that with grit and determination, one can overcome most obstacles. I will do my best. Thank you! 🙏
In seventh grade the solving of algebraic equations became like a game to me. Thus a lifetime of enjoying the challenges of mathematics. Or perhaps the enjoyment of manipulating numbers as a way of understanding the world.
I have seen this dynamic in the music world. I was naturally talented on the cello. I stood out in college in this way. I had fellow students who were less talented, but they were disciplined. I graduated and came back a couple years later to say hi to my fellow students and I was surprised to see that they had become awesome cellists! Their hard work paid off.
What you talk about in this video is super inspiring. I think I'll come back to this video again and again when I'm going through dark times. Proud to be an underdog.
Why does this guy look like the reincarnation of Newton...
I used to be a progamer, long story. The jist was it took me years and over 15,000 hours to get on the level of someone who could get to where I was in months. I was always frustrated with my prospects, wonderinng what they had that I didn't. Eventually I learned to make this my strength though. I kept on improving in the thick of it where talent hit a wall and shit got brutal. Resilience and grit was my strength.
Ultimately I'm no longer a progamer, now I'm a biochemical engineering student. That time was not wasted though. I took with me that resilience and grit and I still use it as my strength as a student, and it turns out I have quite the aptitude for math. All I've ever really known was how to take a beating, but now I'm doing something different. That lesson was still so valuable, I wish everyone could experience it.
I view being able to go where no one else wants to go as my talent, it's a skillset that trumps any other skillset.
Being a programmer really teaches people how to be humble. I feel you
Hi i wanna do the same.Did you do masters in biochemical or you did a bachelor's again?
@@jay-fm8sc I think he meant that he was a pro-gamer. And yes, getting really good at a video game is probably a lot harder than writing c++.
Thought I was dumb. Ended up with having adhd and imposter syndrome. I’m gonna learn everyday.
I absolutely love your channel. All my life my parents kept telling me that I'm too stupid to learn anything and that I should probably just quit school. I kept struggling at maths, chemistry and physics the most, never getting any help. Only when I moved out and enrolled myself in an online high school, my grades went up and I just couldn't believe what was happening. Barely passed maths in elementary and junior high school, now I nearly got full marks. I want a degree in engineering but my parents voice is still too much present in my mind.
Im sorry your family was so terrible saying those mean things.
I have a learning disability, but that hasn't stopped me from succeeding in my educational goals.
All learning, of any kind, comes down to exposure. If you expose yourself to it, you'll get better at it, if you don't, you won't. It's really that simple. Same principle with computing, as with language learning, or philosophy or economics.
I was gifted in most subjects until late high school/early college and then when I couldnt grasp something, i fell apart. Youre so right about discipline beating natural talent.
Of course, when one can combine natural talent with dogged determination, thats where the real superstars come from.
I was the super smart kid with no discipline, so the talent didn't really take me very far at all. I'm in my mid-40s now, still smart, but have learned discipline and it makes such a difference in learning, even the things that I was already good at.
I had a very similar experiences like you did with just not getting it while younger. After my time in the service my view on what I could achieve changed. I was able to do things academically I would have never dared to attempt. I think it’s a mix of intelligence , luck, and being able to see it as a possibility. Now I watch math videos for fun..lol. The core of my message is , can you see yourself achieving if even just a little bit ? If you fail , fail better , fail all the way to the finish line if you have to.
I’m reminded of a famous quote by Calvin Coolidge. ‘Silent’ Cal never said much, but when he did, it was to the point:
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” -Calvin Coolidge
I was always the underdog in the discrete math class. I have never had a class where I had to prove stuff, and the skills that required us to break down the problem and prove the statement just weren't there yet. So I failed the class, went through countless other classes where I again had to prove . And finally after some time it just came naturally to me, no matter the course, no matter the problem.
It is shameful and very wrong that so many schools try to teach proofs before anyone has learned anything about formal logic 🤤
The experience of hitting a wall is even worse for those of us with natural talent in mathematics as well as ADHD. I was undiagnosed until my late twenties because school came easily and I didn't display any hyperactivity symptoms. It wasn't until I got to complex variables that I was challenged by a math class. Unfortunately, not only was I inexperienced when it came to responding to setbacks in learning, but I also didn't possess the time management skills to respond even if I knew how.
Fast forward 25 years and I'm taking abstract 400 level math classes. I got triggered hearing that discipline is what it takes to succeed when the content gets challenging, because I can and do work hard, I'm just horribly inefficient. I watch lectures and I zone out, especially when everything is done abstractly and no concrete examples are provided. I watch youtube videos, but most of them are too dry to hold my interest. I try to read my text, and the information goes in my eyes and out my ears. Of course that's if I even get through more than a page before getting distracted. I take notes, and that helps, but it's tedious and doesn't necessarily help me understand. The only thing that ever really helps me learn math is concrete problem solving with lots of repetition, but it seems like this happens less and less in higher math courses.
Has anyone here overcome the double whammy of hitting a wall when things get challenging AND dealing with ADHD symptoms? I'd love some new strategies to try.
Not sure if this would help, but from reading your post I get the feeling that there may be a disconnect between reading/hearing (at face value) vs understanding what you hear (getting to the meaning BEHIND what you see/hear at face value)
As someone with ADHD myself, I tend to hyper focus (and also not be able to control how focused I get, sometimes it’s really intense, sometimes not at all) on certain things…and in some school systems we are unfortunately trained to learn and memorize things verbatim, which is although “efficient” when conveying information, limits its usefulness to the receiver after it is conveyed. I suspect that you might be suffering from a similar problem in which your process focuses too much on the “finite” things (such as the exact wording used, or graph, etc), and thus shirk the “translation” to a “language” YOU can understand (even if it doesn’t look like it’s something anybody else can). That’s why we are at the same time told to paraphrase, as it both converts the message to something digestible and usable to you, but also helps imprint it in your mind at a deeper level. I’m sure we already do this to an extent in every scenario, but maybe it’s worth trying to put more weight to that end rather than the “verbatim” part. This might both better appeal to your interest levels & also really stretch out your understanding of a subject if it isn’t fully sinking in. This process isn’t easy, and in my experience can take a lot more time and experiment to develop into a system that works for each individual (heck, I’m still working on it myself).
In our case I’m afraid there’s more to it than simply developing and having discipline, as it’s doubly if not even more important to focus in “the right places”. Instead of focusing on the FINITE things, try to think more in the direction about how it “feels like it means” to YOU as a starting point (pardon the lack of a better wording), thus tapping into the infinite permutations of conveying the same message and picking out the ones that feel most intuitive to you (after all, language & math symbols and all that are arbitrary finite constructs that we human beings came up with to relay information). People with ADHD tend to be more controlled by how they feel than by what they think. In a learning process we largely deem to be one that should be at times solely driven by logic, if we can really tap in to using what we “feel” properly in combination with our individual learning process, it might even boost our effectiveness beyond that of people without ADHD. By “feeling”, I’m not just talking about the usual connotation of emotions, but other things that you subjectively experience that words can’t seem to adequately describe. This could be notably the very things distracting you when you are trying to learn and maintain your interest…the lack of interest may indicate that it’s simply pointed elsewhere…and possibly quite sharply. Imagine if we could somehow leverage that sharp interest in something else to really push our progress. Either there’s a way to combine that with what we have to focus on in the moment…or you may just be focusing on the wrong thing (maybe that particular mathematical topic isn’t for you, at least at that point in time…but then if you’re in a school system in which you have to follow the course pace, that is a little less fortunate…which is why I’ve found it so much more rewarding to access all these self-learning resources online right now)
This has been my personal experience at least, and I might have gotten a little out there & I’m not sure if this addresses your conundrums, but if anything isn’t clear to you I’m more than happy to try to elaborate
For more specifics regarding ADHD I find that Dr. K at the channel HealthyGamerGG has some really helpful videos explaining the mechanics of ADHD and how to work with/around it
Yeah....Didn't realize that I had ADHD and Working Memory Deficits ,and I couldn't pass an intro to Calculus class , even taking the course 4 times !......
I kept forgetting what I was "solving for" when i was trying to figure out rates of change....was a Physical deficit in my memory !.....its like not being able to see the colour blue.
Flunked out of college after that !......now in my fifties, it doesn't bother me, I am who Am !
I’m self-studying calc 1 right now after hitting a wall years ago in college. Finding a tutor to work with me once a week has been an absolute game-changer. If you have ADHD I cannot recommend it enough.
Intelligence itself is not an accomplishment. It is a tool for accomplishing something.
I have become what some refer to as a “gifted burnout.” I learned obsessively until I started college, but never developed the discipline to *prove* my knowledge to my teachers. My first mediocre grade was a B- in chemistry and my first failure I believe was Calculus 1 at SLU. I could understand both, but I didn’t care to look away from my screen for long enough to complete the workloads. Long-form projects and papers especially pain me because of that procrastination cycle. I am currently writing a paper due tomorrow night while distracting my mind with TH-cam. At least it’s not the night of.
Here is my advice for other young gifted burnouts, current or soon-to-be:
Exercise as much as you know you should. Eat as much as you know you should. Sleep however much you know you should. Don’t let yourself scour the Internet. Quit every addiction you have and replace them with productive hobbies that are genuinely valuable to you. Cheap entertainment is, by definition, not valuable. I have learned these lessons through tears and miserable, barren years alone that I would relive differently in a heartbeat.
thanks for your videos
You look like Isaac Newton
This video is brilliant, because it goes beyond the common sense of "if you are not smart enough, just keep trying". Like, I have never realized that not being smart enough means I have experience dealing with frustration - something talented people lack. Great insights here!
“It's not about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward.” -- Rocky Balboa
More excellent content, mate! I love that your channel isn't only about math, but also about the emotional component of learning and motivation. Thank you. :)
Thank you thank you for this video! ...and I don't even have to tell you why! :) :)
I knew this guy in Stourbridge, England. He was kind of a goth, very social awkward, with quite poor articulation. He turned out to be studying pure maths I think. To look at him you wouldn't have believed it. I guess we get different talents. The problem is that society rewards certain talents more than others which then puts pressure on kids at school. You might be a great musician but you aren't still going to need maths for university so the pressure builds and then of course you can't learn as you are under stress.
I feel like i cant focus and learn anything these days. I should have decent genetics but idk. Im a chronic quitter since failing a sys admin course miserably years ago. And i mean *pathetically* , it was a rectal violation, 2 weeks in i had 0 clue what was goin on. I even ragequit driving school for everyones safety
me too... i can't focus for more than 20 mins..... but Maths Sorcererhas mentioned about patience and I think that may be the answer. As an example I have been running for 10 years doing two months training getting injured and repeating the cycle.... was in a rush to speed up .... this year tried slow running now 6 months in no injuries and running patiently and making more progress than ever..... the brain is just another muscle... so perhaps same principle applies.....
Our long-term development is ultimately a gamble. We never know if we've already unlocked all of our genetic potential or if the best is still yet to come. Plus we usually experience lots of ups and downs instead of any straightforward linear pathway to progress, so don't mistake that as a reason to get discouraged.
On top of that, it's really hard to tell exactly where natural ability ends and where hard work begins. Whether we're talking about brains or muscle, a person's genes generally give a broad range of potential. So never stop trying to become the best version of yourself.
Is it just me or The sorcerer is becoming a math motivational monster these days😅😅good work sir
Yeah, he will soon become the Andrew Tate of mathematics 😎
I consider myself to be above average cognitively and paradoxically being “smart” has left me feeling as if I know nothing rather than everything.
I’m a dude with adhd I’ve always struggled with school from first grade all the way to my last day of high school when I left high school I still had sophomore credits I dropped out twice cause I was tired of it and I let all those shitty teachers get to my head telling me I won’t amount to nothing in my life. I got involved with the wrong crowd and got involved with drugs and alcohol because I didn’t believe in myself I lost all hope in myself I’m 25 now and holy shit life is hitting me like a ton of bricks, I want to change it, so I’ve made the choice to get my GED and go to school and prove to myself that I can do it I wanna learn physics and I know it’s a hard subject but I find it very interesting. I’ve been practicing my math and learning little by little by myself and holy shit I never realized how easy algebra could be I’ve been refreshing myself on all basic math stuff and I’m enjoying it a lot I never thought I’d see the day of me doing math by myself without anyone asking me to do. This is a new chapter in my life and I’m ready I know I’m gonna struggle hella, fuck it life’s a risk carnal.
Ah...College Physics...
This is when I learned that a science class and a math class are not the same thing just because math is involved in both.
There were so few people by the end of it. I guess it was a wake up call for a lot of other people too, maybe even in that very particular regard.
Funny thing is I remember a lot of stuff from that class; forces, friction, how they interact. It really did give me a better understanding of the Physics of the world.
All my life ive been the "gifted one" and everyone would tell me that hard work would still surpass my talent. I believed it then, i believe it now but i have no work ethic even after 11 years of school.
I just got my results for finals. I failed the majority of my modules. It's hard to believe I was a top achiever in my high school. But engineering is just so hard, it introduced me to failure and just keeps pounding me. The hardest thing is having to explain to my mom why I keep failing. Sometimes I want to die so bad, all my peers are ahead in life and I'm still stuck in undergrad. I don't whether to give up, or whether to continue it's a lot!
You have to keep on pushing through. Life is full of ups and downs. Don’t compare yourself to others since we all have our own journeys in life. Just give it your all and you will succeed🙏🏾.
@Pixillious @noelb684 thank you for your kind words, I appreciate you’ll and I'll definitely take your advice ❤️🙂
Pls don't give up
Engineering is about sweating, sacrificing every weekend in order to keep on track of subjects, it's about that.
But if you put the blood, you'll learn to put the work for what you want. Keep going, seek strength in God and have confidence in your right arm, we are all gonna make it.
Depression completely ruined my academic life , and now all my peers are at least a decade ahead of me.
You’re not alone, my story is probably alot worse.
This guy is great
bro if you got math sorcerers bookshelf, no amount of talent will let you slide trough those books.
Not a math person but I love the advice your giving. I do think we all have talents but for different things. But I really do believe where your heart draws you can give you not only the the best fulfilment, but also the greatest lessons. Even if it doesn't work out for you.
In high school I was a mediocre student. I often blamed my own intelligence and traits. As I approach the end of college I’ve had some family death and paternal sickness that drastically changed how hard I applied myself to studies. I’ve been a straight A student for two years in university now, and I roughly commit 15-24 hours per week to my studies. My issue was never learning and understanding, but rather my issue was how I applied rigor to studying… it was discipline. I found it easier to embrace my own studies now that I know what I want to do as well, and with the passion that came with my studies it made it easier to want to study, for my own future, stability, and career.
Success = Talent * Effort^Focus
This applies to learning Math, Physics, etc., just as it applies to learning to play music, a sport or learning a foreign language.
Straight to the comments to see everyone talking about their high IQ.🤣
Another great video. I think the importance of patience can't be underestimated.... with modern life all being about speed that acts against being patient and taking the time needed.
i've only done the first semester of pure math and i passed with an A (the equivalent in my country), but i also like to learn on my own and i've come across excercises that i just can't solve. Then, when I check the answer, the solution is an argument so complex or creative that I could've never thought of it. So this scares me, I'm afraid of coming across this kind of excercises and not being able to solve them or even to come close to the solution.
Talent + self-disciple + dedication = being a successful learner.
I am a failure at life. But I still never give up. I am always learning new things..like quantum physics,genetics,mathematics, etc..Maybe one day i will get a good job in genetics
Thank you for the inspiration. That story about your student always being there and putting in effort really touched me as well as your own struggles. You’re doing such a great service and I’ll be sure to spread the message ❤
Nobody is born with talent. Babies don't make the Mona Lisa. Every skill is learned. When something is explained multiple ways, someone will learn it.
It's NOT hard for me to agree with you in every way. I've been teaching for a very long time too. We are on the same wavelength.
I see this a lot with Natural Leaders vs Learned Leaders (when it comes to SUCCESSFUL leaders).
Natural leaders just have an innate leadership ability, but they don't know why. They don't know what they are doing right. They don't know how to improve. They become victims of their early success.
Learned Leaders have to try and fail to finally figure out what does and doesn't work, and why. They learn what works and how to improve, and in the long run they outpace the natural leaders.
I can confirm what he says as I have first-hand experience of this. I have been marked as "gifted", "talented", etc. from my childhood, and things came really easy to me. I had the worst work-ethic. I studied for some hours outside class for tests and would ace those tests- scoring much better than people who worked for weeks. This gave me a lot of confidence and I never learned to work really hard for tests. I was hit hard in college. Because, although I'd score the highests in quizzes, and would 'get' things faster than anyone else, I would bomb the final tests and other people got much ahead of me. I have a tested IQ of , and yet there are many people who are earning more money than me, and are more prosperous than me in life. Because they had good work ethics.
One thing I learned in a hard way: you have to work really hard on things to get ahead in life- even if you don't like those things. You cannot be choosy. If you like Calculus, and not Complex Analysis- you need to study both anyway to get good grades, and good grades will help you land better higher-ed opportunities. So, learn from me: BEING REALLY SMART WON'T MAKE YOU AUTOMATICALLY SUCCESSFUL. You have to work really hard, and work hard on things that you don't even like. That's life.
Thanks for the encouraging videos 🙏🏼
I just turned 50, and I’m now in second year of a physics and philosophy major. I’ve always loved math, and intended to go back ‘one day’ but wow, calculus and physics are seriously kicking my butt.. I’ve failed 2 courses for the first time ever, and it’s discouraging. I’m persistent though, and happy I came here for motivation
I’ve always been annoyed by the worship of math and math ability. Our society teaches that being mathematically gifted is synonymous with being smart and the lack of math talent equates to being dumb. The matter is seldom stated so bluntly but that is what people actually think. I’m here to tell you that you can succeed impressively without being a math star. I work for a systems engineering company and I trade on verbal fluency and analytical reasoning ability (but not math) to get results in the communication technology subjects that people around me struggle to accomplish, at all. I’m good at nearly everything I touch, except math (beyond arithmetic). I also managed to graduate from Stanford University despite my “relative” math deficiency.
I don't believe in talent. I believe that each brain is wired differently for multiple reasons, especially due to environment and individual experiences. We unconsciously choose how we resonate with things.
Intelligence seems to resonate with our interiority. A calm and positive mind, free from doubts and worries, allowed to go deep into a state of persistent and silent concentration, can learn everything super fast!
Some of us, unconsciously wire their mind around things that require rigour, precision and order. Others do the contrary. I think it's unconscious.
I was always fascinated with space and tech but my teachers always told me I was too dumb at math to study physics…I’m a 4th yr PhD student in theoretical physics. I didn’t start my studies until I was 33. My secret? I just studied hard…lots of work and effort
But what if the talented also worked as hard as the underdog? Sure the talented ones gets too comfortable with their skills and eventually loses because they didn't develop discipline. But what if they do take a lesson from their failure and learn the necessary discipline to succeed? Not every talented becomes a sore loser after they take their first loss, and those who don't will often blow everyone out of the water. There are talented people like Goku from DBZ who loves doing hard stuff just for the sake of it, and there is a reason why he's way too much of a strong character in fiction.
No matter how much you work hard, there is a talented and naturally gifted person who also work as hard as you and beat you in every respect. Heck, being naturally gifted, they don't necessarily need to invest that much time in learning than those who put so much effort and time in their endeavor.
At the end of the day, it depends on how much you love the things you're doing. Are you willing to put 16 hrs a day learning/working on something that a naturally talented could master within just 5 hrs in same day? There is no right/wrong answer to it.
the other angle to consider is that the education sstm is build for only specific types of brains to succeed, the speed /the structure /the switching btween subjects /materials/etc. might not fit all, regardles of ther timemanagement/effort/and other executive skills.
It's important to study the history of one's field: knowing the struggles of those who preceeded you.
Get your ego out of the way: when Maxwell was my age, he'd been dead for 12 years!
this is just manipulation to make you enroll in uni. I studied for 10 years as hard as I could and I couldn’t come even near a talented student that worked 4x less. After 10 years I gave up because you cannot fight nature, maybe only in naruto u can…
Thanks for making videos :)
My pleasure!
In the netherlands we have a system that if you fail a certain central exam youd be banished to lower tiers of education. I spent my 4 years on so called VMBO. I was extremely demotivated and I never encountered any math. After like 10 years i was a bit interested and I learned all the high school basics in like a half year. I went to university and i was crushed i could not do anything at all i suddenly had to write proofs which i never had done and i had to stop since i was not used with math being hard. I sometimes hold alot of grudges towards teachers since they failed to recognize my mathematical abilities and the system in the netherlands that basicly banished me from learning anything. Next year i am gonna try it again and i am already learning how to write proofs so i hope i can just accept that i won't get things fast.
i was one of those talanted students, currently in my late 20s, I'm trying to learn a disciplined way of studying, life has humbled me many times in the way you describe in this video.
It gets to the point where I'm uncertain whether I'm even able to learn anything at all, but I am slowly improving by relearning basic concepts before chewing through more serious textbooks.
Up until after taking differential equations, I was smart enough that I could wait until three days before the exam to do all the homework/review work and do great. That said, it was uniformly a hellish nightmare of stress and burnout that I would not wish on anyone. Talent really only takes you as far as you're willing to work.
Hard work beats talent
Regarding learning mathematics, I suspect that for one person who's genuinely not good at it there's another dozen who were just convinced (by parents, teachers, peers, whatever) that "you'll be bad in learning mathematics, better do humanities".
This is great advice not just for learning mathematics but the kind of mindset needed to learn and grow in all areas of life. Thank you for the video!
“ Nine times out of ten, dogged persistence WILL win over natural talent.” Gen. Sams USAF approx. yr. 1982. Having read this quote has rallied my efforts over and over throughout the years.
I love these videos, shorts included, they are so informative and helpful. I am glad I found your channel I found it while taking my differential equations class, a class I struggles in a lot, and your lectures proved to be super helpful to me in understanding some of the material and I passed the class! These videos about learning and any other topic you talk about are all so encouraging. This videos in particular is something I needed to hear because I often feel that I am not smart enough or good enough to keep with my classmates, I am an electrical engineering major, but with your encouraging videos and the other people in my life I have been doing my best, and in my opinion excelling in college even if some of my grades don't reflect that lol. Thank you for doing what you are doing!
The guy in the thumbnail is looking into a mirror but his reflection is not a true reflection, as much he is looking into an enchanted mirror and his reflection is a malicious spirit from the mirror world.
Great video. Very good points. Never saw "Rudy," but always thought of "Gattaca" with Ethan Hawke on that same inspirational level. Gattaca is about a man with genetic flaws living in a world where people are genetically engineered and given advantages. He has to break some of the rules in that society in order to have the opportunity to accomplish his dream.
I'm not sure why since I knew eve you said in this video, but this was really inspiring for some reason.
I swear I've heard this countless times... I must be in a critical point in my life. I can sense it.
If you're too smart and talented and spoiled with As, you should be dealing with harder problems, tougher challenges, or something to strengthen your mental muscles.
I’ve noticed that insight can come from repetition. Don’t understand it the first time, keep trying
I have i questions.
Whenever i want to read a new math book, I feel like I need to go over the prerequisites again and it takes a lot of time, and when i finish reviewing the prerequisites I often loose my motivation to read the book, how can I solve this problem?
Push yourself “to failure” as they say when lifting weights. This applies DOUBLY if you think you’re talented or really good. Don’t be satisfied to get an A if it comes easy to you. If it comes easy to you, go into the deeper end until it’s not so easy.
A helpful exercise: find someone who thinks they are bad at what you’re good at but who genuinely wants to succeed. Tutor them. Try to instill them with confidence and help them succeed. Consider their success your success and their failure you’re failure. I guarantee you will think about your subject in a whole new way and you will learn how to deal with setbacks and failures and really appreciate your successes. Then take a student who is not so enthusiastic and try with them.
I'm a real world example is this, not a genius, but I've always been good at mathematics. Recently my maths marks have been declining it's due to lack of practice and effort I haven't really been consistently practicing math in high school and a few people got higher marks then me this year. So yes hard work is more important than talent.
Give a hard job to a lazy person and they will find a smarter way to do it.
Dear Professor, I find all your videos so inspiring to me. Thank you so much for sharing your experience and views on learning math.
1:10 confirmed, this guy taught Will Hunting
If socrate seen you he will cry some wisdom math 😅😅
In school, math has always been something difficult for me. Now I do it as a hobby. With every problem I solve, I become smarter, more determined. Sorry for my poor English, it's not my mother tongue. The Math Sorcerer - you're really the best👍
Struggle can be a catalyst for learning, if we believe it.
I like that you give some real life examples. Some people are naturally gifted,they reach their goals without much effort. Of course we are intelligent,talented but lack patience and discipline, resulting in failure.
Indeed that does happen all the time,
Because simply put, having talent does not mean one is obligated to use it.
And if you stop using it then knowledge about it will degrade.
Then again information processing always has been a tedious process so most people long quit before the point in wich they should.
Oh well when it comes down to the Boolean of learning a lot of people just do not know where to start.
And since its way to much work to write down people just fail to learn.
Example: I wanna buy a cheap banana in the grocery shop.
Boolean:
Do i need it? No then dont bother, Yes then move on.
Do i got money? No then dont bother, Yes then move on.
Do i have time to be getting it? (Same as the 2 above)
Do i need to get other things in that shop? (Another one)
What do i want to use it for? (Pancakes means need more then just banana)
How long will it take me and is that worth it to get it now?
Cheap brand or expensive?
Is it spoiled or not?
Can i make sure it does not spoil before i can use it?
I want banana but does my gf also want one? (or parent or anyone you care for.)
If yes repeat all again...
If no Then wich grocery shop?
Is that cheaper and thus worth it?
Can i get it in a discount now or should i wait until it is discounted?
Buy in grocery or wholesale while at it?
Can i transport all that to my home?
Do i even know how to prepare it?
And finally, Do i have a way to get rid of the peels?
Assuming you went trough all that for just 1 banana you get the point.
Learning is just putting a category on chunks of these questions so you can answer it more easy.
Example: Can i cook? if no skip all straight to the semi last question.
Wich is answered based on data stored in the memory based on previous rotations of this question.
So if you never tried it then no.
If you did try cooking then you can skip the wich ingredients, is it spoiled, and can i prepare it?
As those 3 fall under the category of knowing how to cook and how to identify spoiled food.
Since people can read and learn their whole life but not categorize said info they will never be able to use it in practise.
After all someone that has a whole library in his head but has to search 1 line in all that wont be giving a good answer soon.
And will opt to default what makes sense to him based on the majority of similar situations he knows about in the short period of time he has to look trough his/her memories.
Its all logistic gate separation logic anyway.
And since people forget it is done this way most people stop learning when they turn into teens.
Though most of the time, people just give up on learning anyway thinking its not going to be useful in practise as they do not have the patience to keep doing it until they visually notice if it matters.
Wich usually is way way later in ones life.
I came i was born,
I stayed and was informed.
I go and i learn.
I fail and return.
I try until i cry.
And i will stop the day that i will die.
Anyway, have a nice day.
I think we need to talk about the inverse of this.
No matter how hard you work, there are subjects/abilities that you are going to master or be good at. Which is okay.
For many parts of my life I was one of those quote on quote talented kid. I aced exams no problem but today here I am learning the ways of effort. I must say, the number of people that have surpassed me whom I thought was mediocre at best must be counted with more than 2 hands. We really take things for granted when they're easy so I really respect and fear people who are just driven and locked tf in.
any advice for the talented person with low ambitions?
Your videos are trulling inspiring for me. I've entered college last year, with an age of 26 years old. And, being at a public university, I'm struggling a lot with math classes. But I do love math, it is beautiful and I hope someday I can be very goot at it. Thank you for the advices!
Hi, been through my primary and secondary school years and i never and still haven't been diagnosed with a learning difficulty. Got predicted grades: 1 grade higher than a standard pass here in the uk (which is grade 5 in GCSE), which is shocking. However, I never put the effort in nor cared for education so i didn't know and still don't know my potential, but i can say this; I do struggle to remember, and retain information fast. It sucks hearing that genetics kinda determines how your life will pan out, to some extent, but you'll never see me give in, and that's all you need. My advice? Block the noise from everyone else, because it's you against you in this life. Everyone, unless you have a serious brain injury, can learn. I believe that when people mention "natural talent", or "natural ability", they mean that someone can understand, retain, and memorise information faster than others, but the factual thing is: everyone learns at different paces. No, you are not stupid. You are only stupid if you label yourself as stupid. Like i previously stated, anyone can learn. It literally just takes longer for others to learn and reach that same academic destination as with everyone, but with hard work, anyone can get there. I'm about to start my Degree and it's a bit daunting as i have neither of what every other university student has, which are: (GCSE's and A-Levels) which are just entry requirements needed to just get accepted into a university alone, but i believe i will accomplish my goals and ultimately, that's all it comes down to. You can do it. Self-doubt is powerful and like i said at the beginning: life is all mental. If you have control of your mind, you can achieve academic success and can-be in university doing a degree like the rest. Yes, it's hard when people are just naturally good at academia, but it only means they can learn faster. Keep at it and never give in, and if you don't achieve your academic goals despite actually trying, like i said before; unless you have some major brain injury and have no clue how to remember the word: "and", then it has nothing to do with your ability but more your mental state, and how you approached the task in hand. Also, everyone has a different learning style so it's ultimately mostly down to non-genetical factors that contribute to academic success as apposed to just genetics, lol. Anyone can achieve academic success. I was one of those that did beyond terrible throughout school, and got predicted grades that were beyond terrible, whilst watching everyone else do well for themselves, but then again, i didn't put the effort in, so i'm one of those that didn't know their potential and still doesn't. Moral of the story is: you can't let it bring you down. Like i said, life and academic success is all mental. If you believe others opinions and your own self-doubt, it can seriously affect your life and you'll never achieve anything. It's all mental, Keep going and never ever give in. Your worth more than what you realise, and that's something most people need to hear because it's very true.
And even those who have sustained a brain injury can perform better than the ones who are totally healthy (those who haven't stained a brain injury. So, just like the quote from Feynman goes: "Sit down and calculate".
One and all possess a Genius peculiar to themselves. This is fact
Reminds me of Issac Asimov's explanation of why he pursued Chem instead of Physics. For him all math was easy and required no effort...until he reached calculus and then he said he felt like he had to work to understand it (like the rest of us mortals). He so didn't like the feeling of having to work to understand something that he immediately gave it up.
I'm not a math enthusiast, but I enjoy your videos. They are usually applicable to other courses of study too. This one made a solid point. Growing up, I was naturally gifted at a handful of subjects, and could muddle my way through the others. Chose not to stray from the things I was good at for a long time. Once the years started passing and I started trying to learn things I was *more* interested in but *not* naturally talented in, it was truly sobering. It's been a hard road, because in addition to whatever new things I've chosen to study, I've had to learn a "meta-skill" alongside it, which is not giving up (which is what I always used to do when something didn't come naturally). It's been humbling, but in the best possible sense.
No one is talented , their parents did 50% of their work , they are just working on their 50% of work.
Can you supress them ? Answer is NO , if they keep working hard but one day they will stop and your little effort will work there.