"Say you want to get into medical school, but organic chemistry is like a fog that descends upon your brain, so thick you feel like you are swimming through oil-infested gulf water. Instead of quitting that molecular biology and biochemistry major in favor of environmental sociology, figure out how a carbon and a hydrogen fit together. That's more than 1 % of orgo. That's like 90%. The aggregation of small advances from that basic knowledge, done systematically and regularly, will get you through."