[PartiallyTyped]

> What is their usual motivation for this? Do they find they are running into regular work or life situations that require it?

I have a chip on my shoulder. In university I was depressed and didn't even bother attending lectures let alone doing the work in the first couple of years, couple that with professors who when contested were off by a 20-40% bc they cba to care for a secondary course in another department...

When looking for thesis advisors, I found one interested in the things I was. They made a comment asking whether I had an issue with mathematics. Over the year I learned enough mathematics to get to what I was interested in and understand the bleeding-edge literature (calc, linalg, vec calc, prob theory, etc). I corrected some of his proofs in his classes by the end of the thesis.

Still, my early grades haunt me, and parts of me wants to get a math degree just to prove that it is not a skill (read, intellect) issue.