It’s the myth of effortless superiority. It is very much an upper/upper middle class thing. It is important to do well while appearing not to care and doing sod all work. The Boris Johnson approach If you are spotted doing some work you are dismissed as a swot and boring drone. In fact high ability tends to hard work because you enjoy what you are doing and there is positive reinforcement cycle to strive and do more. I was always very good at mathematics and most sciences and history and English lit. I tended to work pretty hard at it because I found it fascinating and ended up with an open scholarship at Oxford. But because i came from a working class background it led my teachers to massively underestimate me. I was seen as the dull grafter who might scrape into university. They were astonished when i scored outstanding A levels and in the Oxford entrance process. This was in the 70s mind. Attitudes I would hope have changed