A river looks calm on top while it’s moving tons underneath. Don’t judge someone’s progress by their surface.

Surfaces are terrible evidence. The classmate who looks like they are doing nothing may be carrying something heavy at home, studying at midnight, or coming back from a week you know nothing about, and the calm appearance says more about self-presentation than about motion. Everybody shows you the top of their water, so comparison built on that is comparison with a guess.

Before deciding somebody is coasting or miles ahead, ask them a real question about how it is going. Offer one true thing about your own week so the trade is fair. Extend the same mercy to yourself on days when all your work is underneath.