At one point in my life I was motivated in a special way, worked really hard, and got to be 99.9 percentile in a quantitative test. Now I’m just a decent coder

At one point in my life I was motivated in a special way, worked really hard, and got to be 99.9 percentile in a quantitative test. Now I’m just a decent coder and wouldn’t stand a chance at a Jane street interview. In my opinion, aptitude is necessary, but people who can pass those interviews are differentiated by a bunch of experience and focus, mental scaffolding that takes years to build. It looks like magic from outside, but it isn’t. My point is you shouldn’t feel inferior, you’ve just been doing different things with your brain. What’s so great about trading anyway? It’s not a particularly efficient allocation of brainpower to society.