Seriously, all the self-congratulation and constant proclamations that
they
are the smartest people in the universe is getting really smarmy.

Uh, congratulating each other is perfectly fine. I don't see themselves
proclaiming they're the "smartest people in the universe". You people
bitching about this are amazing, not to mention the original poster seems to
be utterly confused not only about what they're doing but what they say they
wanted to do. Hint: a crater is not a crater is not a crater.