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What advice would you give to your 16-year-old self?

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When someone challenges you or a group,

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sometimes know when not to take the challenge on,

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like I'm going to lose, that's going to suck,

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but sometimes know when to take the challenge on.

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In my freshman year in college,

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a professor said, "If no one takes the final exam,

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everyone will get an A.

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But if one person takes it,

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everyone in the class will get a double F, get a zero,

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and the whole class will fail."

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And for ten years, he had been doing this challenge.

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And this was most popular class in college,

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and there were students of all years,

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two valedictorians from their respective classes were in there.

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And as a freshman, I didn't know any better.

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I just said, "Alright, I'm going to organize this,"

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and I helped everyone not to take the exam.

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We all got A's,

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and then I became infamous for organizing this.

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And so, a part of the reason why I'm an organizer

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at the media lab,

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in the domain of education,

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was probably because of that experience.

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So, what I would say to myself

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or any 16-year-old,

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that if someone challenges you,

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know when to take it on

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and take it on big.

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And if you win and it's epic,

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that becomes part of who you are,

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part of how people see you,

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and part of how you approach doing future things.

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