Yes I definitely felt dumb in my Russian math classes when someone saw a clever trick and I did not. That made me try harder to look for tricks, it's a challeng

Yes I definitely felt dumb in my Russian math classes when someone saw a clever trick and I did not. That made me try harder to look for tricks, it's a challenge in the end. I ended up with a Math degree very later on. So I don't see how feeling dumb harmed me. PS: the top level professional math is 90% tricks.