Error

At ARML practice a few weeks ago, when problems were being explained, I kind of wanted to go up to the board and present a problem. But what would I say? I wanted to give them some wisdom on top of the solution. Something only a graduate would know. But still the question remained ... what could I tell them?

Then it hit me. While I couldn't give them brilliant advice on the correct approach to a problem, I could give them all kinds of approaches that would fail them miserably.

Afterwards, I thought about my college career. I've flipped basically every convention upside down. I've taken every piece of accepted wisdom and blatantly ignored it. And you know what? It has been a resounding failure.

I wouldn't consider it a total loss. I guess there are some things you can't just take for granted if they only come out of "conventional wisdom." But the purpose of this blog post is to let you know (and remind myself) that certain things are simply sub-optimal. So without further preamble, I present my top 5 things not to do in college (or anywhere, really).

1. Do not skip class

Professors are smart people. They know a lot of things. When they talk a lot, you should listen. Even if it you can do all the problem sets and ace all the tests without going to class, it's (a) kind of disrespectful not to go and (b) good for learning things relevant to the class.

2. Do not stay up past 3 am

I know there doesn't seem to be any good reason not to have sleep schedules like sleeping from 7am - 2pm. However, it is a bad idea. Doing so keeps you from going to class, attending office hours, and getting work done. It's hard enough to get yourself to be productive. Making the hours when no one is doing exciting stuff unavailable for work does not help the cause.

3. Eat breakfast

After having religiously avoided this piece of advice for the better part of 6 years, I can confidently claim that all that nonsense you hear from random sources has actual validity - eating something will give you a lot more energy and lets you think much more clearly. I did a series of experiments on myself last semester. Maybe I shouldn't have done so in such a high-stakes setting ...

4. Do not multitask

Everyone likes to think themselves an expert multitasker, and yes, you can develop this skill to a certain extent. However, this is not a useful skill to develop. It might give you the illusion that you are being more productive than you otherwise would be, but in actuality it is quite counter-productive. I would actually recommend practicing concentrating on one thing instead.

5. Do not read online forums

There's a lot of stuff out there to do. Even playing a video game or gossiping or whatever is better than reading a forum. There's a temptation to think that reading reddit makes you a more well-rounded person, or teaches you how to be funny, or whatever. This is pretty much all an attempt to rationalize a severe waste of time. Other people will link you to funny stuff, and that's fine. Don't actively seek it out.