We were lucky to have James Gumina as our intern last summer, he checked in before heading back to Yale for his spring semester…
This fall I returned to campus for my junior year at Yale. I had an engaging semester in the classroom, with classes on American history, entrepreneurship, and leadership, but the biggest thing I learned did not stem from any one of these individual experiences. Instead, I was reminded of the value of setting audacious goals and then trying as hard as I could to achieve them. In an era and a generation that too often focuses on “nonchalance,” striving to do something great or hard can get left by the wayside. I saw positive examples across both ambitious public pursuits and quieter, daily private choices. In many ways, I was reminded about the value of trying.
I saw this lesson play out in unexpected places this year. Last February, when accepting a Screen Actors Guild Award, Timothée Chalamet said he was in “pursuit of greatness,” and proceeded to list greats, both among actors and athletes, that he looks up to. At the time the speech made the rounds on social media and generated think-pieces across major media outlets. Most of the criticism centered around perceived “arrogance” and “assumption,” arguing that, by proclaiming his lofty ambitions, Chalamet overstepped his achievements and supposedly came off as brash.
While at the time the criticism was certainly in the minority, it was still prominent. Yet less than a year later, I think that criticism would be virtually nonexistent if he gave the same speech today. Since giving the speech, Chalamet has been publicly in pursuit of that goal. In addition to being in the midst of a terrific run of film roles, his eclectic, seemingly never-ending Marty Supreme press tour raised both his profile and the profile of the film, generating hundreds of millions of impressions for an A24 film about ping pong. While I can only speak from personal experience, I do not believe I am alone in saying that the only reason I went to see the film was because of the press tour. His efforts, combined with the film delivering an entertaining experience (⅘ stars on my LetterBoxd), have made the film a hit both commercially and culturally, and set it on track to become one of the biggest A24 movies of all time.
Another testimony to the value of audacious goals is Zohran Mamdani, the new mayor of my home, New York City. In the span of fewer than 12 months, Mamdani skyrocketed from political obscurity to national prominence, and the mayorship of the biggest city in the United States, essentially entirely on the promise that he would work to achieve audacious goals. His candor and messaging clearly captured the imagination of the public, and powered him to an improbable political win in November. While I will not wade into the political waters of his promises, the value of setting those goals for his campaign is clearly evident to any New Yorker who remotely follows politics.
These public examples inspired me, but I also realized the same principle applied to a very different kind of challenge I’d set for myself. Personally, I set one such audacious goal for myself this semester: run an ultramarathon. So, at the end of September, I completed a 50 mile race in Vermont. Unsurprisingly, it was really hard. I spent over 4 months training, ran roughly 1,000 miles in preparation for the race, and still nearly failed to complete the race. I dedicated a huge portion of my life to training, from the obvious act of going for runs, to the more hidden acts of hydration and sleep. As a college student, this meant some Friday nights of going to sleep as my roommates were just going out, and waking up for a run as they were just getting home. Each of those Friday nights was its own choice: to do something hard when easier options existed, to try when I could have coasted.
Back in the classroom, I faced a different kind of choice about trying; one that, although quieter, was no less consequential. Any student today faces an obvious choice between trying and not. AI has made it feasible, even sustainable in some cases, to shirk, fake, and cheat on all your academic work. It might not produce stellar content, but it would give you enough to get the job done and maintain a reasonable GPA without learning anything. As students now face the choice to try, it requires a conscious effort to take the harder path.
One of my professors this semester said something that I will remember for the rest of the time I am a student, and hopefully well beyond: “you can outsource many things, but never outsource your thinking.” The machine can help give you some directions, but don’t let it drive the car. Just like choosing to run when I could have slept in, I had to choose to think when I could let AI do it.
This semester I wrote a 25 page research paper on a minor event from the War of 1812, a 15 page visual analysis of a little-known Thomas Cole painting in the Yale Art Gallery, and designed and pitched a startup for an entrepreneurship class (among other things). While these are the things generations of students would have treated as normal and expected, the growth of AI has rendered sustained academic engagement rarer. From Vermont trails to late-night writing, I kept choosing the hard path this semester. Both the ultramarathon and the intellectual work had moments that were no fun, but that’s what made them worth doing. The value is not just in what you accomplish, but in what you become by trying.
The Power of the Pause…