Somewhat related, back in highschool I was really enjoying chemistry class. Super fun stuff, definitely a career path. Then when we were doing the math practices, I got a question wrong that I knew I combined correctly.

I asked the teacher and she said “oh yeah that one just doesn’t follow the rules” instantly killed my enjoyment of chemistry.

What is this author for XKCD’s background? He seems to know a lot about a lot of complex subjects. I’m always impressed.