Comment by willtemperley

> I think our obsession with innate mathematical skill and genius is so detrimental to the growth mindset that you need to have in order to learn things.

Absolutely. There's also a pernicious idea that only young people can master complex maths or music. This is a self-fulfilling prophecy - why bother try if you're going to fail due to being old? Or perhaps it's an elitist psy-op, giving the children of wealthy parents further advantage because of course no-one can catch up.