Excellent post. Since you took the time to write it, some advice: When you have been in the field for many more years, you will hopefully come to see that ther

Excellent post. Since you took the time to write it, some advice: When you have been in the field for many more years, you will hopefully come to see that there are an infinite variety of gradations between people's skills, interests, capabilities, weaknesses, and that all are contextual, circumstantial. Formative time in the competitive crunch of youthful academia being distilled into a number, comparing our numbers with each other, seeing higher numbers are better, calling them "smarter," etc. That creates an illusion, one nearing obsolescence. There is no "smarter." People, and the world, are three dimensional, not one. And everyone has a narrow band in which they can be a superstar, with luck generally dictating whether one gets to spend time there. Re: one specific activity you mention- "reading technical books/articles..."- there is a BIG difference between "consuming" activities and "producing" activities. Consumption produces certain kinds of growth that can be exhibited in conversation, in context, but is not directly measurable as output. If it motivates you to work on changing your behavior, instead of reading every night, write instead. Find your voice. Build the capability for technical storytelling. If it is not presently a skill, it will at first be awful, and hard. But with practice you may find yourself with a habit that produces several pieces a week. To a first approximation, that's usually all there is about what you are seeing- someone who writes rather than reads. Be well!