Also, the intersection of people thinking (burnout at Caltech = tautology) and (reading HN is a good way to flick) is sufficiently large that I really think there will be no negative repercussions if you otherwise conduct yourself honorably online.

Hi from an '03 mole whose is mildly surprised you're hitting that wall in sophomore year -- back when I was there it was junior year. But hey, I didn't do CS :)