>>12675626Yes, I do. The biggest obstacle for me was fear. I was scared of math because I was taught that being wrong the worst possible thing that could happen.
However, the younger kids in my family are being raised differently to how I was raised. When they fuck up their parents point to me, saying "Look at your cousin, he was a halfwit but he worked so hard and now he's successful.". As a result, they're all highly successful in school.
I know it's probably more nuanced, but I feel like 70% of intellectual ability is self-confidence. If you come across a difficult problem or deeply abstract field of study, don't think "Shit, I can't do this, I'm not smart enough" - think "I'll do my best and one day, I'll succeed". Personally, all of the expertise I have now is in subjects that I really struggled in at first (for example, statistical physics, which I failed the first time but is now the subject of my thesis). I just learned to never give up.
The remaining 30% comes from pushing yourself and your mind outside of your comfort zone. You'll have noticed that my English isn't that good - it isn't my first language. I used to be really insecure when posting online, but I fought through that insecurity and I'm a lot better than I was before.
