I don't think the difficulty stems from an inherent inability to learn a concept. I think the difficulty occurs largely because of two factors: lack of interes

I don't think the difficulty stems from an inherent inability to learn a concept. I think the difficulty occurs largely because of two factors: lack of interest and intimidation. Have you ever had to read something unfamiliar that you found incredibly boring (think reading a patent application)? You end up reading the same page over and over but you absorb very little of the information. Your mind just moves through the words but doesn't make the effort to understand what was being read. This occurs simply because you don't have enough interest in the material at hand. Seeing how intimidation can factor in this is a bit more difficult. You can usually see this by watching someone try to solve something that they think they can't solve. A lot of times people in this situation make a lot of half hearted a attempts but rarely follow through. I think this is similar to how people struggle when they are put in a situation where they need to make a really open ended decision and get overwhelmed by the options. Edit: clarity