aka the tortoise and the hare (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tortoise_and_the_Hare http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tortoise_and_the_Hare), or, for a more to

aka the tortoise and the hare (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tortoise_and_the_Hare http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tortoise_and_the_Hare), or, for a more topical treatment determination beats intelligence (http://www.paulgraham.com/determination.html http://www.paulgraham.com/determination.html, http://www.paulgraham.com/founders.html http://www.paulgraham.com/founders.html) It's universal. e.g. I'm not supersmart, but maybe halfway between supersmart and average - enough to have glimpses; to know what I'm missing; that my reach exceeds my grasp. I breezed though school, undergrad, honours, masters. The game was how little work I could do. But at PhD level I wanted to do world-class work, and so glimpsed ideas I couldn't effortlessly "just grasp". I kept trying to "just grasp" them in different ways... Now, finally, I'm attempting to build up my skills, one higher-level at a time. It's ughhh because it makes me feel really stupid... but that's just because I am. At least, relative to the task. I'm making progress. So I've got that going for me, which is nice. The common wisdom is that less intelligent people hit this barrier earlier, and (if they want to) learn the skills to overcome it when younger. They are net better off.