people often come out of school thinking that life will apportion its challenges to meet their skill level. after all, that's the sort of designed environment

people often come out of school thinking that life will apportion its challenges to meet their skill level. after all, that's the sort of designed environment they've been in since they were 5. intelligent people get caught in the trap of relative comparison: thinking that they're awesome simply because they were better than their immediate peers. this is one of the big benefits of going to a "good" school. not that you're receiving a qualitatively better education, but because you're thrown together with some of the best and brightest. this resets your scale at a much higher level. of course the most successful people tend to put in a supreme effort constantly without reference to any artificial scales.