Uplifting testimonials for and from individuals already studying mathematics in a traditional education system. However, for the general public it does not provide any 'living proof' that there's no such thing as 'math people'. All the examples account for people who already showed mathematical proficiency to some degree early on, but encountered struggles along the way. Moreover, despite the fact that the testimonials come from mathematicians I do not find the book's wisdom to be particularly mathematically oriented—it can easily be summarized by: "Where there is no struggle, there is no strength." —Oprah Winfrey. This is rather expected for everything in life that's hard; academically, athletically, artistically, parentally, etc. Trite, but true.

Although I found the book lacking non-mathematical people successfully finding their way into math or physics, it does shed some much-needed light on the problem of biases and ridiculous archaic traditions of the educational system. A place you'd expect to exude wisdom still manages to produce pretentious buffoons. I don't know whether I should call those who persevere in such an environment brave or masochistic—maybe a bit of both—or better still: mathematicians.