For Tomorrow

Through evolution, humans have become social creatures. It's beneficial to communicate and collaborate with others to achieve things that aren’t possible alone. But as the nature of groups of people changed, so did the dynamics of these groups and the people in them. Group dynamics define a significant part of our identity and our choices because it's easier to conform to an established identity than to think differently. And this can have detrimental effects for a society in the long run. Everyone holds beliefs, but an inherent part of having an opinion is disagreeing with the opposite, which is difficult without a group to support you. Humans have evolved to antagonize “out-group” individuals. This is from a primal need to protect their scarce resources from other people who are fighting for them. As human thought and technology evolved, people naturally did the same thing with ideas rather than resources. Protecting their ideas involves fighting with the mass of people that ...

I was asked by a friend if I would go into STEM olympiads if I could relive my grade school experience. I was honestly surprised by this question, mainly because the person I was talking to was the most respected “math person” at our school. They clearly had olympiad success and from various team competitions I knew they genuinely loved problem-solving and math. So when they answered the question, I wondered why they would erase such a big part of their life. I see my friend’s point, olympiads don’t give you practically applicable skills. Most people don’t practice olympiad math while looking for a job, why would you need to? And from a pure utility, “the most benefit in the least amount of time,” point of view, maybe working on hobby projects is the best way to get the most bang for your buck. Working on building a robot or writing a website relates directly to what someone might want to explore in the future. But should we really be looking to think like this as high school students?...