The first time I tried to learn Lisp, I felt like my IQ had dropped to about room temperature. It took me years to get it, trying again every couple of months.

The first time I tried to learn Lisp, I felt like my IQ had dropped to about room temperature. It took me years to get it, trying again every couple of months. Eventually, I did get it. Next stop is Haskell. :) If it makes you feel better, the people who seem to be really smart have the same roadblocks, false starts, and struggles... if not more of them, just as world-class marathoners (while they run the distance faster than most of us could) are still exhausted at the end of a race, because they run so hard. It wasn't until my late 20s that I "got" that this sense of exhaustion is often a good thing. At least the exhaustion that comes from solving hard problems is a good thing; the kind that comes from political flare-ups and open-plan offices is pretty useless as far as I can tell.