During his math PhD program, Vlad Tenev says he challenged himself to identify and excel at the hardest available task, treating it as a competition with himself.

“"So, you know, if we lose our jobs, we're gonna have to get sent back to Bulgaria." So there was all this pressure to succeed academically. And, um, you know, and, and for me, you know, my math PhD program, at some point, it became kind of this challenge, like, what's the hardest thing?”

“How can I do better at the hardest thing? And it, it was this almost, like, competition with myself, um, and, and with, with my, my parents, who were also very academically strong.”