Between about 10 and 15 years ago, I started studying advanced mathematics for fun. I know, I’m seriously weird. But a good friend of mine with a PhD in mathematics volunteered to help me learn the kind of math that I hated in college and to advance even beyond that. Because, well … like I said, I’m weird but I had the sense that I would really enjoy mathematics if I wasn’t being graded and I wasn’t under pressure.

I had a ball! I can’t tell you how fun it was to to learn and master problem solving in mathematics. Some of the concepts are so elegant and cool, they just blow you away.

Problems sets can make you sweat, admittedly, but the concepts are just stone-cold awesome.

I know this is probably not making sense as a response to your article, but here’s the connection. Advanced mathematics requires a tremendous amount of creativity. The people who invented the concepts? They weren’t just thinking outside the box, they were dreaming in some parallel universe!

Solving problem sets requires a lot of creativity too. But when I was struggling for Bs in college solving differential equations hoping my stomach didn’t get tore up by ulcers, there was no way I could appreciate the creativity and beauty of what I was doing.

My degree program was designed to be a pressure cooker, to weed out people who weren’t “smart” enough, to select for super talented folks.

In the process, they killed my creativity, even though the most talented people in the field are some of the most creative people in the world. Who managed not to let the system burn them out.