A million years ago, when I was a teenager applying to Harvard University, I was interviewed by a local alumnus. We met in the dim, basement den of his home in Sherwood Park, a suburb of Edmonton, Alberta. I came prepared to be grilled but he did most of the talking.

I only remember clearly one piece of his advice. As a Canadian kid, he told me, I had no doubt been taught by parents and teachers that “bragging” about myself was wrong. Americans were different. To survive at Harvard, he said, I had to learn to blow my own horn as frequently and as loudly as possible.