The Parable of the Leaky Bucket

You're pulling a bucket of water up the side of the building. The bucket weighs 2 pounds and holds 5 gallons of water, the rope weights 1/2 pound per foot, and the building is 30 ft tall. If the bucket is leaking water at a rate such that at the moment the bucket reaches the top, all the water is gone, how much work have you done?

Well, using related rates and calculus, you can find exactly how much force you are applying over those 30 feet, but you don't need math to know that you really have to plug the hole in your bucket before pulling it up the side of the building.

Karen, my roommate, is very frustrated with her chemistry class right now. She feels like she is the person in the leaky bucket problem. She's putting in all this work and then on the test, no result. No water. But what can you do?

I think this is probably a common problem among Berkeley freshmen. We're used to doing well. We're used to being the best in our class (well, it depends on what kind of high school you came from. Definitely not New Trier...) and now, all of a sudden, we're working harder than we've ever done and doing worse, also, than we've always done. We know we're better than this! Or are we? Now that we're in a group where everyone used to be the best, where do we really stand?

We're not used to needing extra help. We're used to giving the help. We're not used to struggling. Things should be easy. They used to be easy. When you put work in you should get results! I deserve a good grade, I've worked hard on this. Or do I? I thought I understood this concept but once I get to the test, I find that I really don't. Is there really a limit to my understanding? To my potential? I thought I had a lot of potential, am I running out already?

We came here because we wanted a challenge, because we wanted to be surrounded by brilliance, because we wanted to push ourselves. And now we find that we don't know how to go. How do I study this? How can I understand this? How can I possibly put in any more work than I already have?

We don't understand the definition of limit. Many of us have never come close to hitting that limit before, and now we're there. We're pushing our limits of understanding. We're hitting the edge of our potential.

I think I saw this coming. Over the summer, I was so scared that I'd overestimated what I can do. That I was too confident, too spoiled, overestimating where my limits lie (or whether I have any).

It's even more difficult when the people you've lived with all your life are just as deluded as you. They expect you to do well, even cruise through the challenges. After all, you've done that all your life. They maybe don't know how to show support, or just have too much faith in you. My parents have been really good about it. Over the summer they were all "college grades are important, make sure you get A's!" but now that I'm here, they say "as long as you work hard and try your best, it's good."

There's a limit to what you can do. College is maybe the first time we've even approached that limit, and it's scary. Don't let your pride stress you out because you have to do well, because we know from calculus that it's not about where that limit is, but where you are as you approach it.