From an interview with Prof. Matthew Fisher, a permanent member of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at UC Santa Barbara, regarding the difficulty of intuition when thinking about quantum mechanics:
...Fisher said he learned to think quantum mechanically by thinking mathematically first.
"One's intuition can with time transcend the mathematics. I would say that mathematics is to physics, what grammar and syntax are to poetry. You can't do the latter well unless you have a deep grasp of the former..."
So physics may not just be a game for the 20 and 30 somethings, like so many of the prized behaviors of society, such as athletics and TV script writing?
"Twenty is, I think, too young, for great physics," said Fisher. "At the other end, obviously, one eventually burns out. I do notice that the leaders in string theory are not only 30-year-olds, but also 40- and 50-year-olds. With the 50- and 60-year olds who were great successes earlier on, their success tends to generate distractions in the form of new duties. And physics, above all else, takes incredible focus."
Quoted on p.5 of The KITP News (August, 2006).