Do Half of Your Peers Seem Smarter Than You? That’s Great! |
Why Education Is Important
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Many grad students erroneously assume they should expect to be top of their class or else they are not smart.
Successful people tend to aim to be surrounded by people who challenge them.
People who are finding it too easy to be the “best” are probably not learning as effectively as they could.
By the time you reached grad school, you have probably had the opportunity to be the most curious toddler, the most advanced first grader, the most gifted middle-schooler, the most self-driven high-schooler, and the most upwardly mobile college student. In other words, there was probably a reason why, of all things, you chose a path as academically demanding and intellectually challenging as graduate school.
The good news is that now that you are in grad school, you are probably surrounded by more like-minded people than ever before. At least this could be good news if you look at it the right way. But if you look at it the wrong way, this could be terrible news—veritable torture, in fact. Why? Because you have probably spent years building your self-esteem through comparing yourself to others and coming up on top. This means that once you can’t easily substantiate a conclusion that you are smarter than your peers, your self-esteem begins silently convulsing in horror.
The Sweet Spot for Learning
Here is a fact that may not be surprising but is often overlooked: The best place for learning is not the one where you are the smartest. Neither is it the place where........