https://kam.mff.cuni.cz/~matousek/mustafa-onbeingsmart.pdfIn the current environment, everyone wants to be smart, or at any rate, appear smart. This
severely interferes with learning, naturally: students who consider being smart important
become more conservative in the length and hardness of problems they attempt, which is a
reasonable risk-averse way of preserving their image. This approach works for undergraduates, especially under the diseased quarter system since the material covered is relatively
shallow and easy. However, once one starts graduate studies and begins to think about problems where its not even clear if a solution is possible, the habit of following the risk-averse
strategy just doesn’t cut it.
