Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wikipedia tells us, was a German writer and polymath. However much I love the idea of a polymath, this Johann dude was often wildly wrong like the one time when he said : “The little that is completed, vanishes from the sight of one who looks forward to what is still to do.”
Everything that we look forward to to accomplish rests on what we have already done, innit? Hopes or even fantasies for the future cannot be agnostic of the past. The expectations for the future rise only out of the accomplishments of the past – real or perceived. The burden of expectation only grows with achievement. It is critically important to set the right expectations at the beginning of life, a relationship or a career.

If I had been any smarter or if I could go back 15 years, I would pretend to be dumb and would have been happy now being Andy (or Dave, if you please) from Tech support instead of trying to build exotic derivatives/ digging borewells instead of borel fields / mixing martinis instead of martingales and regular brownian motion would still have meant all is well with my digestive system.

Yes, hindsight is a bitch.