Dialing down your effort so the group feels comfortable is a trade you’ll regret by graduation.

Groups have a quiet ceiling, and it is easy to drift under it so that nobody feels shown up. The cost stays invisible at first because the friction disappears, but you are trading years of your own growth for a few comfortable months. Nobody who benefits from that trade will remember making it with you.

Hold your own standard and make it generous rather than competitive: share notes, explain how you got there, pull someone up instead of slowing down. If distance still opens up, the problem was never your effort. Find one person who makes full effort feel ordinary.