<p>Warblersrule, Socrates knew that he knew nothing, he didn’t pretend he knew nothing. Difference :-)</p>
<p>I think the kids in the Crazy 8 and friends (Ivy League plus another elite schools) are as smart/smarter than Chicagoans, but there seems to be this incredible need to lay low on the nerd factor/ ability to bring up academics outside of school. It has always seemed to me to be the extreme exception that kids from another school discuss their coursework, what they’re reading, what they’re thinking about (a suspicion more or less confirmed by my nerdtastic friends at Ivies).</p>
<p>I’m not going to pretend that we’re intellectual all the time (believe me, we’re not), but I’ve never been in an environment that has been so receptive and abiding to the magnetic sway of conversation from YouTube videos to the Iliad to gossip and back again.</p>