Now this is crazy

This is an overachiever. Only a senior (younger than me, still!), and has already published tons of papers in reputed journals. And while doing 672 credits (= 56 classes) within 3 years. Not to mention the tons of achievements (Putnam, etc.) and many ECAs.

And he's not unique. There are several other extremely outstanding people over in MIT of similar caliber and achievements.

This is why I feel humbled in the presence of these people. When people tell me I'm "overachieving", or I'm a "genius", its only a relative comparison. When I look at CV's like that, I do realize my inferiority in more ways than one, even within the academic arena.

Many of my Singaporean peers probably have not seen brilliance of that like before. It's scarily amazing when you see such people doing their work. When you work with smart people, you tend to become smarter as well. The experience and opportunity to work with these kind of people cannot be found in many universities, in particular Singaporean ones.