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Tetronian comments on Learned Helplessness - Less Wrong
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Agreed, but seeing a bunch of people do X easily and then having your mind freeze up whenever you need to do X is not instrumentally rational. In Learned Blankness, Anna Salamon pointed out that it's ok to know that you are bad at X, but it is irrational to let your mind instinctively go blank when you see X.
I agree about freezing up - doing your best under the circumstances should not change from seeing your relative disadvantage. Picking a career is another story - have to know how well you're expected to do in a field before jumping in.
I can't find it now, but I fuzzily remember something I think Michael Vassar or Will Newsome said about doubting the existence of learned helplessness, except in humans or pack-hunting animals which have lived with humans for a long time.
Seems like a pointer toward the instrumental rationality of failing like that.
Edit: it was Will Newsome.