Rivalry

>>8788211
Like day two of university, feels bad man

>>8788211
I know that feel. You get used to it and you realize there's more important stuff.

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>>8788211
When I was 11 because my grammar school was top of the country in non independent schools.

>>8788211
I still feel bad about it, but better after I really understood that unless you're a retard, hard work trumps raw intellect.

>>8788211
I've seen multiple people under 18 with as many or more credits as me and I'm a junior. My school only offered Calc 1 and chemistry for college credit. Some people are going to have x,y,z qualifications,knowledge,etc... so making a direct comparison to others can be a disservice to yourself.

Because of this, I compare myself to where I was and where I want to go.

>>8788211
I hated the attention before, so I was glad.

Yup, that's pretty how I've dealt with it. Realised that geniuses aren't made in school but during your research.
Or at your job.
That works too

About a week after I got out of college and started looking for jobs.

>>8788225
This so much

When I came into undergrad, I loved chemistry to death but I didn't have any career ambitions at all, because I'm honestly not very smart (I mostly get Bs and Cs in STEM classes) so anything beyond industry chem seemed very out of reach. Then came the day when I found out that you don't have to pay for a science phd in America- THEY pay YOU. And acceptance is astronomically easier if you have some research experience under your belt.

Now, I'm a junior, applying to grad school in the Fall. I have a 2.97 GPA and a little over a year of research experience under my belt. Sure, I'm sure as hell not going to Stanford and I can't compete with the top 10% of my class at all. But I'll find a school, I'll push through, and eventually I'll have my own lab at a university. I really couldn't ask for more.

You don't have to be the best, but you can always be a little better than you were yesterday

>work on a thesis for 14 months
>a friend proves it wrong without even reading it fully

>>8788477
should've shown it to him earlier

>>8788211
There's plenty of dudes smarter than me, but envy or despair never really registers with me since I don't base my self-worth on my intellect, so I tend to have a feeling of admiration and also inspiration to reach for those heights.

It doesn't matter if I don't reach them as long I actually try instead of being a defeatist cuck.

>>8788211
I experienced many false alarms before the real one hit. I remember being very upset that some 10th grader was taking calc with me while I was in 11th grade. With some time I realized he wasn't smarter than me, he was just ahead in math.

In grad school it really hit me. I was genuinely in the presence of some people who were just plain smarter and faster than I was.

>>8788488
Fuck you I was just about to say something like this.

But yeah, learned that like in the first few weeks of first year. I'm friends with the dude too. He's inspiring, really. He's the reason I'm studying things between study terms. I don`t see him as "better than me", per se, but rather someone who's level I want to be on.

Also, there's a 12 year old in my physics program, so there's that. He's pretty cool tho, he has a natural first-year disdain for labs, and feels the stress of E&M, so at least he's not flawless.

I've never really been smart, just mature for my age so the fact that I'll never revolutionise anything isn't anything I'm worried about. I just try to do the things I enjoy and if that earns me some money/street cared so be it.
Just do what you think aligns with your goals in life

>>8788470
>2.9
>applying to grad school


KEK, you have been bamboozled, my friend. Even absolutely awful schools/programs don't take in that low of a GPA. I go to a horrible school (UNLV) and they will only consider 3.5 and above for entry into gram stem programs, and that's not even with a guarantee of a stipend. Not trying to be a dick, but you've been seriously misled if you think that you're getting into a phd program. If you're lucky you can get into some untangled masters program that is out of pocket.

>>8788470
unless you pull yourself up by the bootstraps in your last semester, good luck getting in to anything

>>8788211
Weed is pretty good

>>8788211

Never had a false sense of superiority, mainly because nobody tried to instill into me when I was a kid. Then again I grew up in a communist state.

>>8788211
Oh, this year but it didn't end like you would expect.

I am the golden boy, or at least the closest there is to a golden boy for undergrad. All A's. All professors love. All professors treat me like if I am a level above every other student (some have said, in front of everyone else, that if they tried to teach at the speed I learn everyone else would fail the course).

So this year I am taking number theory, and it is specially important that I become the number theory's professor golden boy because I want to research analytic number theory and steal the riemann hypothesis right out of terence tao's filthy chink mouth. Then after a couple of classes the professor gives us practice problems and there is one specifically where my mind blanked and then some other kid started answering the question's the professor would make.

That fucking triggered me. I felt ashamed. Up until now I had been the only one who always answered the professor's question. (He teaches in a style in where he does something in a proof and then asks us to justify it).

I got fucking pissed. Real pissed. So after that day I looked for the most advanced algebraic number theory textbook I could find (for the undergrad level at least) and I learned EVERYTHING from it. Even things that we are just covering now. I learned all of that in 4 days because after 4 days was his next class.

GUESS WHAT HAPPENED NEXT CLASS?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

I answered everything again and now that I practically know the entire course I answer things so fast that I bet the rest of the class isn't even computing what the professor is saying before I already have a perfect answer.

GET REK'D FUCKING RETARDED KID. HAVE FUN FAILING NUMBER THEORY FUUUCKER,

>>8788211
Like day 1 of my life

I've never been #1 at anything, ever.

>>8788211
I think you are a narcissistic manchild.

>>8789548
what book?

>>8789563
This one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0387950702/ref=x_gr_w_bb?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_bb-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0387950702&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2

It's pretty good. You can... buy it... too. ;^)

>>8788211
Never. I finished my math undergrad in 3 years, got into grad school fresh out of by bachelors, and I read quantum mechanics textbooks for fun.

>>8789548
>trying this hard in hashtag theory
kek. you should do this for abstract algebra and advanced linear algebra instead.

number theory is shit for undergrad. much better in the algebraic sense.

>>8789553
>>8789553

Ding ding ding

>>8788211
>go to community college for one year because I got a full scholarship for being valedictorian
>literal smartest person at entire community college
>transfer to state uni
>2 weeks in, still no one smarter
>decide to join fraternity
>mostly engineering frat, top grades for 11 years straight
>get a bid and pledge
>mfw all my pledge bros are 36 ACT, half are GEMS (guarantee entrance med school), other half are 5 year masters program for engineering
>mfw I'm a nursing major

I had a hard time at first because I wasn't used to people matching me intellectually. Now I really enjoy it. It's like being on /sci/ irl.

I didn't go to a STEM field so I still feel vastly superior to the others in my classes. Law school is filled with people who want money but felt they were too bad at math for a degree in finance.

The running joke is "I became a lawyer because I suck at math!"

Law is interesting but holy shit the people attending law school are inept.