[scarmig]

Reminds me of the story of Feynman vs the Abacus. [1]

Though, as a story, the conclusion he draws is pretty self-congratulatory and bothers me a bit. The substrate on which you implement an algorithm like arithmetic doesn't really speak to whether you "know numbers." It's like the high schooler thinking being very good at computing integrals makes you good at math.

[1] http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~elf/abacus/feynman.html

[posterboy]

Being powerful, ie good in something, is a function of Work over Time, so if you are good without much effort, that implies some sort of talent I think.