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Comment by whatever1 | Hacker News Reader

To an outsider I look like a programming language fast learner. I picked up python in a month and passed multiple big tech interviews.

Reality is that I had been programming in C++, fortran and DSL for over a decade.

Similar examples from colleagues in college and schoolmates. People with strong foundations seem to learn faster, but the reality is that there is past effort that you don’t see.

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Programming is probably an extreme case, since some people begin it as a hobby in middle school or high school and others go into introductory CS classes having done no programming at all, but it's not hard to imagine similar factors happening in other subjects. For example, I did well in high school English courses, which I and my peers obviously had years of classes in already—but I also did extra curricular reading and writing, mostly because it was something I enjoyed.

Now, would I say natural aptitude is negligible or non-existent, as the headline does? No, I don't think a single study is that definitive (and it did find a difference, just a small one).

True. This might be confirmation bias so take it with a grain of salt: At school both students and teachers used to consider me brilliant. They saw me picking up concepts faster. But I knew all I had was a headstart. Everytime I was supplied books at the start of a new level,I just read them all and hunt for interesting knowledge.

A lot of students depend on extrinsic motivation - they want a reward for learning, or they don't want to be punished.

While you may disagree with labels, there is a positive correlation between intrinsic motivation and intelligence.

Learning a second programming language is always easier than the first, or rather second language within a paradigm. Going from C++/Java to Prolog is for example a really alien experience. But to C#, its largely just syntax.

> but the reality is that there is past effort that you don’t see.

This. Always this.

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