I had the complete opposite experience, never gifted. Bullied by my teachers in middle school for my lack of intelligence. It was always an effort battle. The only way to get the pre-reqs was to literally drill 100s of problems. I remember I did for one math test in college and I studied consistently for hours for weeks only to get an 89. I earned that and my college roommate coasted in and got a 96. Work ethic wasn’t a choice it was the only way. My perspective on gifted students not utilizing their full potential is smallest violin. I wish I had what you had. But I don’t and all I had was motivation and discipline. I struggled all the time in school but work has been easy by comparison.

I’m emotional about this and don’t mean to attack anyone, but all my friends in the same state are all depressed and on SSRIs. It is sad for me to see them. For me the conflict was never being good enough, for them it’s the same but they seemingly chose not to do anything about it. That might be the difference simplistically but life isn’t that simple. There is no conclusion for this antidote or argument. Maybe just find a problem where you get pushed to your absolute limit, might be at academia or startup or something. You find some truths at the end of that.