I read your TrueSkill article, and it was very thorough. Coincidentally, I was looking over the papers and things for a few days just prior, trying to figure o

I read your TrueSkill article, and it was very thorough. Coincidentally, I was looking over the papers and things for a few days just prior, trying to figure out all leaps that the authors made. The math was simple, but there are a few gaps to actually implementing the thing! I didn't quite get to the part where I would email them, but I was amazed that you spent 6 months on understanding it. Good for you for being persistent! As for math, unfortunately it applies to the general public too. It's part fear, but also they keep telling themselves they're not good at it - and not trying in response. Math is a mature field, and as such, there's quite a bit of it to get going. It's tough to catch up years of math without doing it. A peculiar part of it is that some people correlates math with calculations at an early age, the simple arithmetic operations. Maybe it's unfortunate that it is such an easy metric to see who's better at it - easy negative reinforcement. One of my algorithms professor in college explained to me that in (research) math, it's all about being creative, seeing things and making connections, and teaching understandings. I try to keep that in mind whenever I read up on math, though I am eager about everything to learn in general!