pivoxa15 said:
So you think maths is in your genes? Imagine what you would achieve had you tried harder. In fact Ian Stewart said he didn't try that hard either when he was a student and also admited that he had talent. Why don't you pursue pure maths?
I certainly think there is such a thing as a natural ability.
Loads of people say they're rubbish at maths and can't grasp it.
I believe them -- eg. my gf is brilliant in what she does (English), yet admits she has no ability for maths.
However, in the genes? That's very hard to say -- I was the first in my close family (bloodline, say) to pursue my education to university, so I can't tell if any of my family were naturally good at maths...
And, "had you tried harder". Well, I like to think of myself as quite young still

And, pure maths? This goes back to the same old argument of what is pure maths... some of the thing's I do, regarding "functional analysis" could be described as pure. However, I prefer to have some application at the end of it. Though this just throws up the question of the fluidity between pure and applied again
<e2a: Reading this post and the one I quoted a few posts earlier, they sound quite arrogant.
I don't mean them to 
. I think the talk of nature of nurture is an interesting one.>