To get a Rhodes scholarship, you don't just have to do well academically, you also need to be an enthusiastic sportsman and participate in a bunch of extracurri

To get a Rhodes scholarship, you don't just have to do well academically, you also need to be an enthusiastic sportsman and participate in a bunch of extracurricular activities -- i.e. be an obsessive CV-builder. And indeed, since the actual cash value of a Rhodes scholarship isn't all that large, the main reason to want one is to get another shiny achievement for your already-extensive CV to impress even more people. The kind of students who are competitive for Rhodes scholarships are thus exactly the sort of students who do things in order to build up their CVs rather than because they are particularly passionate about them. A Rhodes scholarship selection committee member complaining that kids nowadays are thoughtless hardworking achievement drones is like a football coach complaining that students nowadays spend too much time in the gym. It may or may not be true in general, but it's obviously true of the subset you're interacting with.