Sometimes you have to go at a problem the way I’d go at a complicated crossword puzzle. Sometimes I’d pick up the Saturday Times crossword puzzle and I’d go over way over half the clues before I’d know the answer to one and then you start with what you know the answer to and you just build on it and eventually you can unravel the whole puzzle. And so I rarely work a puzzle with of any diffculty from one across and one down and all the way to the end, in a totally logical fashion. And I think a lot of difficult, complex problems are like that. You have to find something aspect of it you understand and build on it until you can unravel the mystery that you’re trying to understand.
Nearly anybody can learn nearly anything they need to know. Nature has something to do with it but I think nurture has something to do with it. I think, nature made Einstein’s massive brain and made him what he was but nurture can make nearly everyone seem to be above average intelligence if they have the right sort of nurturing early as well as the right kind of formal schooling and academic challenges and adults who believe in them when they’re children. I really believe it’s a little bit of both but most of us are all capable of doing more than we think! – Bill Clinton in WordPlay
