Another solution may be to somehow turn off your fierceness, by devoting yourself to meditation or psychotherapy or something like that. Maybe that’s the right answer for some people. I have no idea. But it doesn’t seem the optimal solution to me. If you’re given a sharp knife, it seems to me better to use it than to blunt its edge to avoid cutting yourself.
This seems like sunk cost fallacy. If your goal is to maximize your happiness in life, then you shouldn’t base your decision off of the abilities you have now if utilizing them won’t make you happier. This seems like an easy path for the stereotypical Gifted Kid to fall prey to: having succeeded by unhappily working themselves extremely hard through high school and/or college, and then feeling like they need to continue performing at that level since they’ve already built up so much knowledge, accolades, job connections, etc.
I don’t think the “stereotypical Gifted Kid” did work hard at all through high school and/or college.
But you make a good point about a fixed expectation about performing at a high level. I know I get frustrated when I can’t do so (for a variety of reasons).
This seems like sunk cost fallacy. If your goal is to maximize your happiness in life, then you shouldn’t base your decision off of the abilities you have now if utilizing them won’t make you happier. This seems like an easy path for the stereotypical Gifted Kid to fall prey to: having succeeded by unhappily working themselves extremely hard through high school and/or college, and then feeling like they need to continue performing at that level since they’ve already built up so much knowledge, accolades, job connections, etc.
I don’t think the “stereotypical Gifted Kid” did work hard at all through high school and/or college.
But you make a good point about a fixed expectation about performing at a high level. I know I get frustrated when I can’t do so (for a variety of reasons).