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Pro tip: In order to understand recursion, you have to either just know it or know someone who understands it.

Not at all. This is just basic mathematical induction in reverse. I think we learned it in 7th or 8th grade.

I think he was making a meta-joke about recursion.

Not really, if you understand loops you understand recursion.

Loops are pretty easy to understand...

Understanding recursion:

If you understand it, you're fine.

Otherwise, go back to the beginning.

Recursion is Mathematical Induction, written as a program.

If you can grasp all those things in less than a week, than congratulations: you're a once-in-a-lifetime genius.

If it takes you years to grasp all those things like the majority of us, then that's fine too.

I have also been in class with 20-other once in a lifetime geniuses, and probably a total of 120 in my high school. And there was a whole chain of schools that specialized in math in the country. One per county.

From what I hear in MIT they give you the complete scheme language at the first lecture.

He asked about aptitude.

It took me several years to grasp pointers after having fed on BASIC since I was 7 :/

I'm fine with C now though.