Where do some people get the information that only the best book-worms should attend the most prestigious schools? After most really successful or influential people did not graduate at top 10% of the class. That includes Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Bill Clinton, Winston Churchill, Jawahar Nehru, Hitler, Mao, on and on. Even Albert Einstein was not a stellar student.
But he was exceptional.
From my memory of Clarks's biography: On a geology field trip the professor asked him whether the fault was slanting upwards or downwards at this location. Einstein replied, "It's all the same to me whichever way it goes."
Aha, here it is ...
"Now Einstien, how do the strata run here? From below upwards or vice versa?" the reply was unexpected: "It is pretty much the same to me whichever way they run, Professor."
Funny thing: I questioned my recollection because it doesn't really make any sense. The descriptions are equivalent!
I guess that's beside the point, Einstein was, in Clark's term, "The impudent Swabian".