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Could you elaborate on what you mention is the MIT syndrome? I saw one definition (based on over explaining) but it seems like this is something else

by awm 14y ago

GuiA 14y ago
Students entering MIT are the ones acing every class, being constantly praised by teachers/parents and feeling better than everyone else in high school. Then they enter MIT, where they find themselves with hundreds of fellow students just like them. For a lot of personalities, this leads to depression and even in some instances suicide.
- Xcelerate 14y ago
  I would think the fact that they are one of hundreds out of billions would inflate rather than deflate the ego.
  - mquander 14y ago
    That doesn't make sense. People emotionally calibrate themselves against the visible skills of the people in their peer group, not a global distribution of IQ.
    - Xcelerate 14y ago
      Yeah, I know they do that, but it doesn't make sense to me why they do that. If everyone expects to be #1 in the world, everyone but one person is going to be disappointed.
      - GuiA 14y ago
        Go tell that to 18 year olds :)
      - ajdecon 14y ago
        It's not a rational thing, but more instinctive. Your immediate surroundings influence you in all sorts of unconscious ways, but all the people in that global distribution are pretty abstract. You can quote statistics all you like, it's difficult for them to change how you "feel" about yourself. Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbars_number http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbars_number
sprobertson 14y ago
I think he's talking about the easy-to catch idea-disease that since he went to MIT he should be better off than the average person. This might be true in some scenarios, but not in the startup world where as he mentions he "started to meet people who were [his] equals". Personally I'm surprised he didn't already experience this when he got to MIT, like GuiA mentions.

Could you elaborate on what you mention is the MIT syndrome? I saw one definition (based on over explaining) but it seems like this is something else

by awm 14y ago

Could you elaborate on what you mention is the MIT syndrome? I saw one definition (based on over explaining) but it seems like this is something else

GuiA 14y ago

Students entering MIT are the ones acing every class, being constantly praised by teachers/parents and feeling better than everyone else in high school. Then they enter MIT, where they find themselves with hundreds of fellow students just like them. For a lot of personalities, this leads to depression and even in some instances suicide.

Xcelerate 14y ago
I would think the fact that they are one of hundreds out of billions would inflate rather than deflate the ego.
- mquander 14y ago
  That doesn't make sense. People emotionally calibrate themselves against the visible skills of the people in their peer group, not a global distribution of IQ.
  - Xcelerate 14y ago
    Yeah, I know they do that, but it doesn't make sense to me why they do that. If everyone expects to be #1 in the world, everyone but one person is going to be disappointed.
    - GuiA 14y ago
      Go tell that to 18 year olds :)
    - ajdecon 14y ago
      It's not a rational thing, but more instinctive. Your immediate surroundings influence you in all sorts of unconscious ways, but all the people in that global distribution are pretty abstract. You can quote statistics all you like, it's difficult for them to change how you "feel" about yourself. Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbars_number http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbars_number

sprobertson 14y ago

I think he's talking about the easy-to catch idea-disease that since he went to MIT he should be better off than the average person. This might be true in some scenarios, but not in the startup world where as he mentions he "started to meet people who were [his] equals". Personally I'm surprised he didn't already experience this when he got to MIT, like GuiA mentions.