When I was a TA at my college, in the introduction to CS class, I noticed the following: 1. There existed people who clearly were, in general, intelligent, ha

When I was a TA at my college, in the introduction to CS class, I noticed the following: 1. There existed people who clearly were, in general, intelligent, hardworking people who completely and totally DID NOT GET computer science. It was frustrating dealing with them, because they were accustomed to the idea that if they put in effort, they mastered subjects -- but it wasn't happening for CS. At least, in a semester. 2. There were people who really "got" iterative programming but were completely flailing when it came to functional programming. 3. There were people who really "got" functional programming but were completely flailing when it came to iterative programming. Now, on some level, I'm sure that there is an underlying general intelligent/merit thing going on. Nobody who got into my college was an idiot. I'm sure that even the people who were struggling were doing better than would a hypothetical person with a mental disability whose development never got past the 6-year-old level. But it seemed clear to me that there is a measure of differential, narrow aptitude in the realm of computer programming, not just general aptitude. I would imagine that there is also narrow aptitude in sales, investing, running a company, etc.