It does not have to be your cup of tea, but for the record, reading math does not require being smart so much as being patient.

What would you propose as an alternative?

They’re not assuming anything, they are doing calculus.

He sold his first software before it was even finished to his own unuversity.

What drives me crazy is when I hear this fact being cited as a positive thing that makes him a role model.

If it’s explicitly consensual then it’s not cheating because you are not breaking any understood rules of the relationship.