The hard part about table selection IRL is that choosing easier tables feels like admitting weakness. There's more social status in losing at the hard table than winning at the easy one. How many people stay at McKinsey getting absolutely crushed when they could be the star player at a mid-size company?

“If you want to be in the top 1% of a particular domain, then you can’t take your cues from and follow the social norms of 99% of people.

This is harder than it sounds. We are wired to imitate. The further you want to climb, the more carefully you need to construct your tribe.”