you will probably never discover or create something of distinct value
God, you're really demonstrating your lack of knowledge. Do you understand how hard it is to discover ANYTHING at all? People with PhD's spend 6 additional years after their Bachelor's (which is only a 4 year program!!!) learning and researching so they can create a thesis on the thing they were researching. Even then, only one in thousands (because there aren't enough PhD's to say millions) discover something one might describe as having "distinct value".
With that in mind, I'm not trying to discover anything! I'd rather enjoy my life than spend years pouring over books to make some minor discovery that no one outside of my field cares about.
Terry Tao is the most accomplished mathematician of this generation and he hasn't discovered anything of "distinct value" to anyone outside of pure math. I've finished all of my math classes and I don't even understand what the hell he's talking about in his papers.
pretty much everyone involved in the educational system can reach each level at the same age as their millions of peers with enough funding and hardwork, which doesn't say a lot about understanding.
You're confusing "understanding" with "talent/ability". Just because someone CAN learn something better/faster/whatever than someone else, doesn't mean anything. Who would I hire, someone that doesn't understand Operating Systems but apparently they're a quick learner (based on their own observation and maybe a reference of their's?), or someone who understands Operating Systems already? Hmmmm...........
Understanding calculus, something that millions and millions of people already do (so it's hardly esoteric) is not a worry of mine.
Ahahaha! I think you can pass Calculus if you put your mind to it. With that said, it's fairly normal for over 50% of the class to fail or drop out. The people that pass were usually the top performers of their high school. Hell yes it's esoteric. From what I can tell you're another year or two off from even taking that class (if you even have to take it for your degree). It was my first math class and I took 6 other math classes above that.