Not particularly, despite exam results etc etc yada to the contrary. I know too well I'm capable of astonishing cock ups, lapses of concentration or consideration and all the rest despite a touch more academic ability, and there's also some slight assessment-backed suggestion I have mental failings in other areas that can be as important. Try to make the best use of what talents I have, though.
However I was watching "Extreme Engineering: Bridge Across The Bering Strait" on Quest whilst this question came up, and it simultaneously made me feel pretty much like the smartest ************ on the planet*, and totally stupid at the same time**. Conflicted!
* They had to do lab simulations in a huge, Pinewood studios-style simulation booth to find out that shaping their piles like an Icebreaker's hull was better than making them square? Or that the way to build a heavy thing on soft ground was to put in loads of deep piling foundations to spread the weight over a wide area and prevent it from sinking or toppling? That's what I would have done ANYWAY and predicted long before they said it. Not to mention people are considering the idea so seriously that a TV show got made with all that backup data. The sheer investment, maintenance and danger makes the whole thing ludicrous vs just continuing with ships and planes, and what's wrong with building an Ice, wind (and largely earthquake) proof tunnel (even if just a sea-floor one) instead?
** But, in the end, I'm still the one sat watching this shit as a background to working on the laptop when there are plenty of other channels, and a cupboard full of far more stimulating DVDs and VHSes (half of them unwatched) in the opposite corner. Buhhhh durrr herp derp.
