Doing well in your courses: Andrej's advice for success (2013)

> All-nighters are not worth it.

I disagree. I made some of my best friends through all nighters and continue to occasionally pull them because they reinvigorate meaning into my work as they did my coursework.

If your only metric for success in school is your GPA, then yes all nighters aren’t worth it. But climbing a metric leaderboard isn’t the only measure of doing well in a course.

It is curious because Andrej recognizes this with his comments concerning coffee.

This is an article about doing well in courses, not in making friends

The course I did best at in school was the one that led to a job opportunity through some friends I made.

Why do friends need to be made through all-nighters? Could you have made the same friends by organizing study groups during regular hours, and then doing something else fun with those people in the evenings?

They don't have to be, nor am I claiming that all nighters are unilaterally positive. But they were an integral part of my college experience and many of my friends' and I enjoyed them in a type 2 fun kind of way.

Asserting that they're not worth it misses the broader picture.

Occasional all-nighters can be fun. We even did them at work back in the dotcom days. I wouldn't do them now, because they don't really accomplish anything. But they can be fun.

Making friends is one of the most important reasons to go to college. Friends from that era of my life later hired me into excellent jobs that changed my generational wealth. About half of my friends met their life partners during college. Several of my lifelong best friends are people I met through college friends and activities.

The more career-minded might call it "networking".

Like in army training, shared suffering helps comradery.

Nevertheless, the article is specifically about doing well in courses.