Sources from office hours report that your optimistic TA is about to realize how genuinely stupid you are.
“There’s really no such thing as a stupid question,” said Janice Lee ‘25 just as you were about to ask an incredibly stupid question. “It’s actually really good when people are able to admit when they don’t fully understand something.”
“I know students can really beat themselves up and think they’re not smart enough,” continued Lee, oblivious to the fact that you actually have no idea what the hell she just wrote on the whiteboard. “But that’s really not the case. Just because you don’t know how to solve a problem doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you haven’t learned it yet.”
“With a growth mindset, anyone is capable of learning difficult material,” said Lee, unaware that you’re about to ask if she can go over the entire problem set for the third time. “Learning this kind of thing is really hard, and it just takes a lot of time and effort to get the hang of.”
At press time, your professor already knew how stupid you were.