I want to note as someone who was the "victim" of over-praise that I don't think it would've been such a problem if not for the fact that so much of the praise

I want to note as someone who was the "victim" of over-praise that I don't think it would've been such a problem if not for the fact that so much of the praise was done without a clear impetus (e.g. a large amount of effort expended on a project). It got to the point that it was basically background noise that made my mindset "well, if my baseline mode is apparently 'smart as hell' when I'm not trying at all, why try?". It's like you've hiked 1/10 of the way up a mountain and there's someone insistently blocking your view of the peak and saying "oh my god look at how far you've come you are awesome!"