Scott Barry Kaufman

The earliest example of that is when I took myself out of special education, I chose to

myself.

At that moment, I was in a position where the school system was telling me I was a certain way.

And I was like, you know what, I'm going to change the script.

I'm going to tell the school system that I can handle it.

Give me a chance.

As I went through school, I was repeatedly reminded that I was not good at math.

I ultimately barely graduated high school by taking what was called business math at the time, simply balancing your budget and keeping a checkbook.

But it wasn't until my late 20s when I decided to go back to college and had to take a placement exam.

I tested into what was called Math E, which was math essentials.

It was self-paced learning and I had to relearn multiplication, subtraction, division, decimals, you know, percentages.

It was very, very basic stuff.

But after that, I got into my first algebra class and quickly rose to the top of it.

Ultimately, I went on to get a degree in economics with a minor in accounting.

And for the rest of my school career, absolutely loved math, numbers, puzzles, and problem solving.

And went on to graduate with honors.

And so...

It's difficult to say that one form of intelligence is better than another because, like I said, I was told I sucked at math, and now that's what I do for a living, and I do it well.

I love that.

You know, I saw Larry David give a talk recently.