When I was young, I thought I was just naturally "gifted" (I was in the "gifted" program in grade school after all, so there was that). I figured that I was one of the smart people who could figure out anything and not one of the dumb people who had to work to understand things. I felt this way for a while, right up until I ran into calculus. Man, calculus chewed me up and spit me out. I had this sort of epiphany when I realized that, no matter how smart I was or was not, there were things out there that were difficult for me to understand and there may well be things out there that may be impossible for me to understand. I got to be a bit more humble after that - but I interact with people who, I believe, have never had that experience or, worse, ignored it: if I can't figure it out, and I know I'm smart, it must be pointless, so I'll ignore it. I depressingly suspect these people of mistaking need to concentrate with stupidity, regardless of the topic.