"Not Really All That Smart"

Ol' Backwoods read an interview in a trade magazine with Dr. Stephen Maas, whose book on nonlinear RF circuits is considered to be a foundational text in my field.  I was fascinated by this quote, which I totally identify with.  (Sorry about the pic; Penton does not allow text copying from the PDF version of their magazine.  Stupid.)

It's ironic: a guy whose work I totally "geek out on" thinks he's "really not all that smart", and
"had to learn how to dig into a subject and explain it to myself."  That's how I view myself, too.

Just goes to show: sometimes effort really is more important than intelligence.