While I don't care much for IQ as a statistic, I do believe that discipline and hard work are important. The author gives a quote from Euclid and two physicist

While I don't care much for IQ as a statistic, I do believe that discipline and hard work are important. The author gives a quote from Euclid and two physicists, but for the aspiring mathematician, or anyone who is bewitched by the myth of a genius mathematician, I think a more appropriate quote comes from Terry Tao [1]: > Actually, I find the reality of mathematical research today – in which progress is obtained naturally and cumulatively as a consequence of hard work, directed by intuition, literature, and a bit of luck – to be far more satisfying than the romantic image that I had as a student of mathematics being advanced primarily by the mystic inspirations of some rare breed of “geniuses”. This “cult of genius” in fact causes a number of problems, since nobody is able to produce these (very rare) inspirations on anything approaching a regular basis, and with reliably consistent correctness. He goes on to describe how some of the most valuable traits in mathematics include asking dumb questions, pateince, maturity, etc. I would add to that the skill of being wrong. If you're wrong all the time and comfortable with being wrong, you can identify more easily when you're wrong or right and work to fix the wrong stuff and identify the keys to the right stuff. [1]: https://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-advice/does-one-have-to-be-a-genius-to-do-maths/ https://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-advice/does-one-have-t...