> I know a lot of scientists (physicists and mathematicians) and all of them are stubborn, but not particularly brilliant.
My experience is that professors in "pure maths" are very bright and showed exceptional reasoning skills from an early age.
> It's not brilliance that defines a professional scientist; it's a willingness to be bored and work weekends for very little compensation.
That's quite a generalisation! obviously, not all professional scientists are geniuses and it takes perseverance to get a decent permanent position. But to get a position in a decent institution isn't only a matter of political connections and stubbornness. Look up some coursera classes for instance. The people teaching those classes aren't just there because they're the only ones willing to do some "extraordinarily boring" legwork.
My experience is that professors in "pure maths" are very bright and showed exceptional reasoning skills from an early age.
> It's not brilliance that defines a professional scientist; it's a willingness to be bored and work weekends for very little compensation.
That's quite a generalisation! obviously, not all professional scientists are geniuses and it takes perseverance to get a decent permanent position. But to get a position in a decent institution isn't only a matter of political connections and stubbornness. Look up some coursera classes for instance. The people teaching those classes aren't just there because they're the only ones willing to do some "extraordinarily boring" legwork.