I agree Dana, that due to a plethora of social reasons maths is often taught in a very unpalatable way causing a considerable proportion of people who would other have been very competent in the field of abstract reasoning to develop a general distaste for it. I don't know if there's a simple solution to this problem, but my guess is it'll require education reform that better utilizes mediums like the internet.

My groundless estimate is that while there are some gifted programmers and computer scientists who shunned traditional maths at school, they wouldn't be overly representative of either group. My annoyance is with both those who proudly boast about failure in these areas and our general social consensus in accepting this as a norm. I fear that the true extent of the deleterious effects of this are being overlooked: it discourages younger people to try by building an image of coolness around underachievement.

I feel this is predominantly a Western value, and while it has the benefit of encouraging a wider pursuance of endeavors as well being more considerate to the feelings of those ill suited to abstract reasoning, I don't know if these benefits outweigh the costs or if there doesn't exist a better overall approach that can retain the best of both worlds.