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Qiaochu_Yuan comments on How my math skills improved dramatically - Less Wrong
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I find this post slightly disingenuous. My experience has been that mathematics is heavily g-loaded: it's just not feasible to progress beyond a certain point if you don't have the working memory or information processing capacity or whatever g factor actually is to do so. The main conclusion I draw from the fact that you eventually completed a Ph.D. is that you always had the g for math; given that, what's mysterious isn't how you eventually performed well but why you started out performing poorly.
Nope, not disingenuous :-). Yes, I had unusual mathematical potential, but many of those who do don't realize it, and even those who have average mathematical ability could learn much better.
Based on the Less Wrong survey results, my IQ isn't substantially higher than the average LWer's, but I know a lot more math than the average LWer. Whether or not this is significant is in part a value judgment, but my story is relevant to those who would like to improve their mathematical knowledge and ability.