> But I recently realized there is a very good reason to take Calculus. It’s to prove you can do hard things. While I do like mathematics (thus I clearly have

> But I recently realized there is a very good reason to take Calculus. It’s to prove you can do hard things. While I do like mathematics (thus I clearly have no negative feelings about learning calculus), this argument is dubious: the longer I live, the more I realize that the capability to learn complicated scientific stuff (including mathematics) hardly does transfer to other areas of life. Just consider this: if such skills transferred so well, one would expect that those people who make a steep career in companies have learned lots of insanely hard stuff, often hard mathematical and scientific stuff. The reality is that the people who have such a steep career are rather great "policitians" (in the negative sense), sycophants and self-promoters. On the other hand, learning hard scientific/mathematical stuff nurtures the personality trait of "no bullshitting" and developing less tolerance for claims that clearly cannot be abided by. Thus: I really like learning hard things, but this personality trait is in my opinion often a career killer.