TITLE: math.stackexchange has so many good mathematicians, were you all good at maths since school?
QUESTION [12 upvotes]: I'm afraid this question will be kicked out but I have to ask this.
Were you all mathematicians brilliant and had good maths brain since you were kid?
I was very bad in maths when I was in grade 8 then got better at it till high school. But I've been programming for 6 years after graduation and now getting back to do Research degree. I find myself to be stuck, can't make sense of anything, even basic stuffs. Does that mean I am not good at maths? or may be it isn't my cup of tea?

REPLY [10 votes]: Without knowing more about your background and your teachers and the curriculum that you've been subjected to, it's hard to say much in specific.  However, I highly recommend that you read (at least the first dozen pages of) Paul Lockhart's essay:  A Mathematician's Lament.
Enjoying mathematics is key, and the world is awash with misconceptions about what that is.  Creativity and an appetite for solving problems is probably more important than having excellent memorization and procedural skills; the latter skills are, unfortunately, often mistaken for being "good" at math.