<p>let me tell you a story from the lore of hsl. many of you probably remember this but if you don’t it bears repeating.</p>
<p>once upon a time there was a girl who was academically successful beyond her wildest dreams. she did competitions and got published in scientific journals and went to caltech on a full scholarship at the age of 16. once she got there she realized there was more to life than academics, and she was so traumatized by that realization that she tried to kill herself a bunch of times and got kicked out of school. now she is emotionally broken and will probably never do good work again. if she hadn’t been so damn excellent in high school she’d probably be able to actually do something.</p>
<p>on the bright side she is so good at math now that everything she shts turns to gold. so she is still better than you even though she spends most of her time lying in bed and reminiscing about her days of glory.</p>
<p>moral: you can win high school, and still fail life. but at least you’ll still know what you learned in high school. and if you do it right that’s worth quite a lot.</p>