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> In retrospect, I'd say a better thing to do with a smart kid is to convince them that they should work on things they're not as good at.

I'd give the opposite advice: when a kid is genuinely in love with learning something, try to never say "be more well rounded" or other things that the kid could construe as being against that starry-eyed love.

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What about a student who excels in some areas but is bad at writing, or has trouble making friends, or doesn't understand much about politics and stuff that goes on in the world (you can probably tell I didn't spend much time in high school, but you get the idea)

Chemistry is something which one can get by not knowing. A lot of other stuff learned at school, not so much.

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