Ishi, your quandary is more common than you may think. Many highly intelligent people are not good at the math they encounter in school. There are several reasons for this. On the one hand, most of us are motivated by issues involving human interaction. Literature and history involve narratives about people. We humans are social animals and are naturally interested in stories and anecdotes. That’s why novels and fiction dominate the shelves of bookstores. Books on math are often shelved in the small enclaves where they won’t offend anyone.
Our first introduction to mathematics is typically the study of arithmetic which requires learning the concept of place value to represent numbers, algorithms for numerical operations and other procedures that require mental effort. Such cognitive effort, that psychologist Daniel Kahneman calls “system 2 thinking,” depletes the brain’s supply of glucose the way a physical workout drains our energy supply. Both activities require effort and therefore are taxing and sometimes perceived as repugnant. Consequently, many intelligent people don’t like math and don’t exert the effort necessary to learn it.
Enjoyment of mathematics is an acquired taste. When I was in elementary school, I enjoyed arithmetic, because it came easily and I received praise for learning it quickly. However, when I took algebra, the rules for algebraic manipulation seemed boring and artificial, so I nearly failed the course. The next year we studied Euclidean geometry and my passion for mathematics was rekindled, because proving theorems was like solving puzzles. I went on to complete a Ph.D. in mathematics, because it has been my passion ever since. At the advanced level, mathematics is not a bunch of procedures, but rather a sandbox of puzzles whose solution requires some sophisticated thinking over a prolonged period. I see in my mathematical colleagues the joy that they also experience in the Eureka! sensation that results from solving a hard problem.
If you persist in your learning of mathematics, you will break through your natural cognitive resistance to it and begin to discover your own intellectual abilities. There is a strong correlation between mathematics and IQ because many of the items on IQ tests require the same skills as mathematics, such as pattern recognition, generalization, short term memory and quick mental processing. Give math a chance, and I promise you that your effort will pay huge dividends.
