There was a guy in my Theory of Computation class that routinely outperformed me and was way quicker on the draw when the professor asked a question (I'd never speak up, but I'd always try to come up with the answer). I've always had to work hard for what little understanding I end up with, struggling to accept/organize the rules that make something understood.1 This guy seemed to do it easily.
I'm sure I've come across many people like this. They can be hard to spot if you're just a peer - most smart people I've met learn to downplay the disagreeable effects of intelligence. I know many stackers are very smart.
The professor of my Theory of Computation class once described an encounter with his wunderkind: a guy, unenrolled in his class, would come in only to take the tests and would do perfectly on them, performing several standard deviations better than the mean. Apparently the guy would do that in other classes too. Rogaway eventually pulled some strings to get him transferred to MIT (CalTech was too elitist to accept a transfer).
Footnotes
With most subjects I never seem to fully organize the rules. Once I get them organized enough, such that I see the implications of fully organizing them, I tend to move onto something else, seeking breadth rather than depth. ↩
Footnotes