[mcphage]

> Being the smartest kid in your undergrad [...] motivates you to do better.

I've known a number of people to whom it did the opposite—they were always the smartest person in the room, so when they said something, people just assumed they were correct. And they began relying on it; nobody would call them on their bullshit, so they never felt the urge to think very hard about things. Whatever they came up with, they'd think "well, I'm the smartest person around, so I must be right", and that's as far as they'd get.

One guy got very argumentative about it; he'd say the stupidest things, and didn't know how to handle being wrong. Other people figured it out.

[turnip1979]

Heh .. I guess the first week of grad school knocked out any illusion that I was the smartest anything. But touche.

[mcphage]

> I guess the first week of grad school knocked out any illusion that I was the smartest anything.

Studying Mathematics is really, really good for that :-)