The author and I have discussed this elsewhere, but we had dramatically different experiences with competitive math, and I think part of the key is that he experienced it as a part of the college admissions grind, while I experienced it as an escape from the classroom to go do cool puzzles.
My major takeaway from his article was "The things we do in the high-stakes holistic admissions structure we've set up are insane" more than anything to do with competition math in specific.
My major takeaway from his article was "The things we do in the high-stakes holistic admissions structure we've set up are insane" more than anything to do with competition math in specific.