Don’t Always Get A’s

Most people think that they should try to do well in school. But ask yourself: why? Well, because good grades get you a good job and stuff. Ok. That’s a benefit to doing well in school. But there are also costs. If the benefits outweigh these costs, then great! If not, then it isn’t best to get A’s.

Benefits

• Security, and peace of mind. I think that this is a huge one. You need money to pay for your living expenses. You need a job when you graduate. Finding a job is difficult. Having good grades provides you with some peace of mind because you don’t have to worry (as much) about finding a job.
• A higher standard of living. Better grades usually lead to higher pay. Which lead to nicer things (a higher standard of living). A nicer car, nicer clothes, a nicer house, in a nicer area, with a nicer gym. A nicer bed, nicer bathroom, nicer vacuum cleaner, nicer stove. Better vacations, a better tv, better furniture, better food, better computers, better smart phones. Better schools, better colleges, better health care. A better lawyer, accountant, tutor, handyman, painter, gardener. You could pay for more heat and air conditioning. For a maid, and a landscaper to tend to your house. You could go out more, to the movies, to shows, to sporting events, to breakfast, to lunch, to dinner.
  Keep in mind that these are the things that you’re working for. Instead of saying to yourself “I’m working hard now so I could live a comfortable life for myself and my family”, say “I’m working hard now so I could have a nicer car, nicer clothes, nicer house etc.” Make it concrete. When you can explicitly state what it is that you’re working for, you might find that your motivations change.
• More choice. This is sort of a blend between the first two benefits. If you have good grades and end up being successful, you’ll have the luxury of choice that less successful people won’t have. Less successful people don’t have the luxury of turning down a job offer. You do. You could pick the company and the position that fits you best. You’ll have the stability to consider changing careers if you want to. Similarly, money will give you the stability to move to a different area if you want to, to send your son to a private school, to retire when you’re ready etc.
• More pride and meaning. I put this one last because it’s not necessarily true. But having better grades often does lead to these things. Doing well in school (and subsequently in career) usually makes people proud of themselves and of their accomplishments. And doing well in school often leads to jobs that require more meaningful and satisfying work. But this isn’t necessarily true.

Costs

• Stress. This is a big one. Doing well in school is difficult. It requires lots of hard work, which is stressful for multiple reasons. It creates expectations, and makes you worry about not doing well enough. It makes you busy all the time, and always “trying to get everything done”. It makes you feel guilty for not doing work.
• Time. This is another big one. There are a lot of things you want to do, and not enough time to do them. You want to work out, play sports, join a club, watch the Yankees, hang out with your friends, explore your interests, volunteer, play the guitar, watch Breaking Bad… sleep! A lot of these things are very important, but you can’t do them all. Doing well in school takes a lot of time, and will leave you with very little time to do these other things.

Efficiency

I want to pause for a second and make a quick practical point about efficiency. Studying often has diminishing returns. The first half hour might get you a C. The next 3 hours might get you a B. And the next 20 hours might get you an A. I’m not sure if the numbers are right, but the point is that there’s diminishing returns.

For example, let’s take my intro to biology class. I don’t know anyone who got an A in that class. Kids who had taken AP Biology the year before, and who had studied like animals throughout the semester got B’s.

The tests had a good chunk of questions that were on the smallest and most random little details possible. To get a C, you had to understand the material decently well. To get a B, you had to really understand the material, and know a good amount of details. To get an A in that class, you really would have had to spend inordinate amounts of time memorizing everything. It takes a lot more time to memorize everything, than it does to understand the material and a bunch of the details that accompany it. In these cases, I think that the costs are very likely to outweigh the potential benefits of trying to memorize everything.

How hard should I work?

Obviously the answer to this question varies (depends on your personal preferences), but I’m going to give an answer that I think is likely to be correct for most people. Take it for what it’s worth, and adjust according to your own preferences.

Do a reasonable amount of work. What does that mean?

• Hang out with your friends on the weekends, and a little bit during the week.
• Exercise every day.
• Get enough sleep.
• Spend some time exploring your interests.
• Allocate a little bit of time for a hobby, or a club. Especially if you’re passionate about it.
• Give yourself some alone/down time once in a while.

In the time left over, do your school work. That’s what I mean by a reasonable amount of work. I think that in a large majority of cases, those things all outweigh the marginal benefits that the extra studying would have provided you with.