<ol>
<li>Welcome to the big leagues. No crying.</li>
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<p>At least now and then, you’ll feel like the work you’re trying to do is way too challenging for you and that you might not be able to do it at all. At this point, some of you will think some or all of these thoughts:</p>
<p>[ul]
[<em>]I’m too dumb for this.
[</em>]I’m going to drop this class.
[<em>]I’m going to switch majors.
[</em>]I’m going to settle for a low grade.
[li]I should never have come here.[/li][/ul]</p>
<p>It seems implausible to even write it (at the moment), but I’ve heard these things enough times that I know for sure people actually do think them. Sometimes I think these things myself.</p>
<p>My main piece of advice is blunt, short, and later qualified a little bit. Avoid this pansy nonsense.</p>
<p>You got in because you were judged to be good at what you do by the most demanding standard in college admissions in America today. Chances are high that if you stretch, you can beat the problems, sets, and courses. But since this isn’t amateur hour, there is no time set aside for feeling bad about how hard you are working. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that you are getting the most rigorous professional training offered to future scientists, and act that way. Self-pity is no wiser in your situation than if you were a pilot doing your first solo flight or a surgical resident wielding the scalpel. (“Oh no! So many veins and arteries! I think I’ll just stop, this is too overwhelming.”) What I mean is that, among other things, self-pity will make you bad at what you are trying to do. </p>
<p>In particular, you will be incompetent if you spend more time thinking about what the problem reflects about you and your abilities than you spend thinking about how you can dispose of the problem. A big difference I observe between people who methodically own their classes and people who methodically get owned by them is that the former people always focus on the problems at hand (attack mode) and the latter people focus on themselves (whimper mode). Introspection can be dangerous, as the great philosopher Bertrand Russell noted by analogy in a slightly different context:
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<p>In any case, I should say that I’m not giving philosophical advice about how to live life, but pragmatic advice about how not to get your a** kicked. It may, in fact, be the case that you are not good enough to get the work done. Then, no matter how focused your work is, you will never succeed. However, a more frequent situation is that you are good enough, but self-pity or other mental weakness prevents you from fighting long enough to win. In this case, my advice will save you. </p>
<p>I soften my advice a little by saying this. When working, you should always be in attack mode. But in calmer times, when you reflect and have no pressing task, consider whether you are suited to what you have chosen to do. If, despite your focused attacks on the problems you have to solve, you don’t solve them all that well, consider doing something else. But as a pragmatic matter, keep this steering device unavailable when you are fighting it out with a particular problem.</p>
<p>If you can grit your teeth and be a man about it (excuse the sexism), there are rewards. I end with this email exchange from earlier today between myself and a professor, about graduate school:</p>
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