今天阅读的第一章节里，作者列举了大量的实例与研究调查结果，为我们揭开了名校生内外极其不一致的矛盾状态，认为大学只不过是在大量 “生产” 看似聪明实则迷失自我的毕业生。
Colleges are producing a large number of very smart, completely confused graduates.
“不能输在起跑线上”，这句话已然成为现今绝大部分父母为孩子报名各种培训班的最佳动力来源。而作家 James Atlas 也曾对那些从未输在起跑线上并且考入名校的精英学生画像如下：
A double major, a sport, a musical instrument, a couple of foreign languages, service work in distant corners of the globe, a few hobbies thrown in for good measure: they have mastered them all, and with an apparent effortlessness, a serene self-assurance, that leaves adults and peers alike in awe.
双专业，擅长体育，熟练某种乐器，会几门外语，积极投身公益项目，拥有能体现个人良好修为的兴趣爱好，简而言之，就是 “琴棋书画，样样精通”。
然而，本书作者表示，从他教过的学生里，曾通信过的几百位学生谈及的感受，以及曾阅读过的学生自我心理分享的文章来看，现实与上面所描述的画像却是大相径庭的：
Look beneath the façade of affable confidence and seamless well-adjustment that today’s elite students have learned to project, and what you often find are toxic levels of fear, anxiety, and depression, of emptiness and aimlessness and isolation.
在他们看似自信和完美的光鲜外表下，这些 “精英学生” 的内里是各式的恐惧、焦虑、沮丧、空虚和孤独。
从小到大，这些 “不能输在起跑线上” 的名校生经历着数不尽的各种考试与培训：学校社团，乐队，训练，考试，补习班，家教，“领导力”，“义工” 等等，让他们已经无暇也无精力再去思考自己到底想从大学里学到什么，想要什么样的生活。
The endless hoop-jumping, starting as far back as grade school, that got them into an elite college in the first place— the clubs, bands, projects, teams, APs, SATs, evenings, weekends, summers, coaches, tutors, “leadership,” “service”— left them no time, and no tools, to figure out what they want out of life, or even out of college.
作者提到，当他还在耶鲁教学期间时并未能看到这些状态，反而是他离职后，一些学生与他通信过程中会慢慢提及。我们之所以看不到，只是因为他们也都习惯了“伪装”自我，他们以为只有自己这样内里痛苦，他们也只看到别人的光鲜，于是：
Everybody thinks that they’re the only one who’s suffering, so nobody says anything, so everybody suffers.
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