Over a bowl of beef pho at a Vietnamese place near Capitol Hill, I asked Hogg whether March for our lives has been a success.

"Objectively, if you look at the number of gun deaths, no," he told me. "And it's hard to reckon with that, because we have tried so hard."

Hogg keeps a Google Doc where he lists everything he's learned from the mistakes he made at 17.

By the time he's done reading it out loud, the pho has gone cold.

Those early mistakes getting too big too fast. Trying to make everyone happy, not planning for the day after the march, have led him to a new strategy.

He's now focused on building momentum on the state level, expanding the movement to include gun owners and moderate Republicans, and changing the culture around gun ownership in the US.

This pivot is informed by his academic focus.

Hogg has learned that conservatives are often more disciplined than liberals, and they tend to stay focused on a single goal rather than try to do everything at once.

Conservatives spent decades building political structures like the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation, while Hogg and his fellow liberals too often find themselves reacting to outrages.

Liberals are organized the way that a bunch of six year olds doing a group project together with a bunch of crayons are, he says.