You don't know Jack (unless his last name is Daniels)

Back when I was on my high school wrestling team, all of the other schools would gather in a circle, chant, scream and otherwise psych themselves up. Not us. We would gather in a circle and quietly, though forcefully, count off, "one - two - three - Cougars."

This wasn't a matter of sportsmanship. Coach Mimms told us that he wanted us to be "quietly confident." He wanted us to focus on kicking ass, not the loudmouthed trash-talking that preceeded it. Victory, he said, was decided on the mat; nothing else mattered. Brag after you've won, not before.

Many law students could benefit from Coach Mimms' advice. No one cares whether you've read Corbin on Contracts, Law School Confidential, the entire Encyclopedia Brittannica, or Harry Potter and the Order of the Coif. Bragging about having read all of your textbooks over the summer doesn't make you any smarter; it just means that you wasted your summer. No one wants to hear about your time in the library unless it's a story about how you had sex underneath the Federal Supplements.

This goes double for 1L's: If you have to brag, at least wait until you have something to brag about, e.g., grades*. (Bragging about how much you drank at Bar Review, however, is perfectly acceptable.) Trying to psych out your classmates, especially this early in the year, is just pathetic. Don't pretend to be Learned fucking Hand after a week of law school.

* - In which case, you're just a jackass.