I've felt the negative side of being called talented at times. I definitely feel where this article's coming from. Another good one is "you just get math" that one really hits a sore spot in me each time I've heard it, because math is one of the subjects I had much trouble with, it was only because of my parents pushing me relentlessly, and my spending hours and hours of practicing that I ever got anywhere in math. I really hated math when I didn't get it, and I never got it right away (other than some trivial side cases). It took hours of grinding at examples, and I've never been satisfied with how my math turned out. I've been acutely conscious of those who actually get math. Those are the people who love to solve math problems. I don't want to minimize their successes in any way, they simply love to be posed a new problem in the mathematical realm, they love to add a new tool to their math arsenal, and they really enjoy tieing all their tools and approaches to finding the definite, unique, Correct (with a capital C) solution. I can appreciate how they like that. And without minimizing their effort, when you like something, you're much more willing to expend energy to solve it. Math was something that I enjoyed a very limited set of sidecases, and the rest frustrated me until I had internalized the solutions (if that ever happened), at which point I simply had no real interest in it. I only drew pleasure from seeing beautiful solutions, and when the math was a means to some end elsewhere. So at times I've had people tell me the "just get" math, as if it came easily, and that was really insulting or just hurtful, because for Me, Mathematics was often my most cursed subject. Many of my bad memories through all my schooling come from math classes. Being pushed by my dad to practice my times tables, to having to retake my differential equations class, because my major inexplicably required a C or higher and I'd gotten a C- (which the rest of engineering was fine with -- not to mention the rest of the school).
More recently, I got similar comments about programming. It was then that I realized that many people don't understand it at all. I love programming. Back in 8th grade I had a Computer Skills class, and during the second half of the class, we got to play with LOGO a programming language (and environment) where with very simple commands, you tell a cursor (shaped like a turtle) to move around a screen and draw things. I learned about functions and parameters in that class. Our final project was to draw our dream house. I made functions that would draw flags, towers, turrets, windows of different shapes. I learned how to change colors, making circular windows was the hardest. But in the end I made this most amazing castle, and I was bitten by the programming bug. The next year I had a couple weeks of QuickBASIC where myself and a couple friends devoured everything we could find on the matter. I made a Slot Machine as my final project. The next year I was in AP Comp Sci, learning C++ and from then on I would stay up late often working on random programs or websites, that might never see the light of day, reading thousands of websites, guides, howto's and descriptions. On till today. I love programming, but I know how much energy I've poured into it. People who are willing can learn many things really fast, but with the solar car team this past year, I was faced with a bunch of people who were unwilling to learn on their own time. (They weren't interested which is fine in the general case, but in this case they were sucking up my time, and weren't producing). I was asked to get some kids up to speed on what essentially amounted to everything I knew, and people didn't understand why that was an unreasonable request. Knowing as they did that I'm a highly motivated guy with things that interest me, and knowing as they did my tendency to be online reading stuff and trying new programming stuff out till late every night for the past 7 years, I would have thought they'd be able to draw the conclusion that because of that and given that schools have 4+year degrees in my major, that there was alot of knowledge that couldn't just be taught to people in a couple weeks time.
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sforzinda
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Date: 2007-09-21 12:01 am (UTC)More recently, I got similar comments about programming. It was then that I realized that many people don't understand it at all. I love programming. Back in 8th grade I had a Computer Skills class, and during the second half of the class, we got to play with LOGO a programming language (and environment) where with very simple commands, you tell a cursor (shaped like a turtle) to move around a screen and draw things. I learned about functions and parameters in that class. Our final project was to draw our dream house. I made functions that would draw flags, towers, turrets, windows of different shapes. I learned how to change colors, making circular windows was the hardest. But in the end I made this most amazing castle, and I was bitten by the programming bug. The next year I had a couple weeks of QuickBASIC where myself and a couple friends devoured everything we could find on the matter. I made a Slot Machine as my final project. The next year I was in AP Comp Sci, learning C++ and from then on I would stay up late often working on random programs or websites, that might never see the light of day, reading thousands of websites, guides, howto's and descriptions. On till today. I love programming, but I know how much energy I've poured into it. People who are willing can learn many things really fast, but with the solar car team this past year, I was faced with a bunch of people who were unwilling to learn on their own time. (They weren't interested which is fine in the general case, but in this case they were sucking up my time, and weren't producing). I was asked to get some kids up to speed on what essentially amounted to everything I knew, and people didn't understand why that was an unreasonable request. Knowing as they did that I'm a highly motivated guy with things that interest me, and knowing as they did my tendency to be online reading stuff and trying new programming stuff out till late every night for the past 7 years, I would have thought they'd be able to draw the conclusion that because of that and given that schools have 4+year degrees in my major, that there was alot of knowledge that couldn't just be taught to people in a couple weeks time.