Dear musick: what I was responding to was the memory of my two MIT graduate uncles quizzing my older brother, challenging him with tricky math problems. I knew that in a couple years they would be quizzing me, and I did not want to be judged less bright than my older brother. My older brother had a low opinion of me, and I didn't want to reinforce it. I was never able to make him change his mind, but I did better at math than I would have otherwise.
Sweet are the uses of adversity.