> I remember a kid in highschool in the 90's. He was the > best in our entire highschool at math. Any math contest > in our school, he would win it. I

> I remember a kid in highschool in the 90's. He was the > best in our entire highschool at math. Any math contest > in our school, he would win it. I think that's an awakening a lot of people on HN have probably experienced! A lot of us were "the smart kids" until at some point when we found ourselves in an environment where we were surrounded by other people just like us when suddenly we were very average or even below average. There's also the related phenomenon, where a smart kid NEVER moves on to an environment where they are intellectually challenged and they develop an ego problem. We all know somebody like this, right? You know: smart kid slacks his way through high school. Doesn't do college or work his way into some kind of career. Winds up working some menial job where he's a super genius compared to his coworkers, so he winds up thinking he's a super genius.