the best performers at school often become career academics -- a few research discoveries aside, you could say this is a pretty low-leverage position. In other

the best performers at school often become career academics -- a few research discoveries aside, you could say this is a pretty low-leverage position. In other words, as you said, doing well in school means little outside of school. So if you really wanted to come full circle on it, you could say it's actually good that people who aren't able to game a system, end up staying outside of that system.