>There are other differentiators than just opportunity: environment, background, culture, childhood, experience, vision and maybe traits.
That's what I mean when I say luck. It's a combination of millions of variables that eventually lead to the successful outcome. The vast majority of those we have no control over.
So I stand by it. Ultimately the difference is luck. You can't pinpoint one of those millions of events and say: this was it. It's always a combination of them all.
>That's not a lie, it just doesn't guarantee success. But it increases probability (when you talk in general, not some specific person).
If inspirational quotes were phrased like that, I agree, that's not a lie. But at least in my bubble I only see folks with fanatical belief that if you work hard you are guaranteed success. I even got personal attacks for my comment from one of those fanatics.
Or even more commonly, like in this case, already successful people attributing their success to "hard work", which is extremely misleading.
The Tyranny of Merit[1] talks about this in a lot more depth.
That's what I mean when I say luck. It's a combination of millions of variables that eventually lead to the successful outcome. The vast majority of those we have no control over.
So I stand by it. Ultimately the difference is luck. You can't pinpoint one of those millions of events and say: this was it. It's always a combination of them all.
>That's not a lie, it just doesn't guarantee success. But it increases probability (when you talk in general, not some specific person).
If inspirational quotes were phrased like that, I agree, that's not a lie. But at least in my bubble I only see folks with fanatical belief that if you work hard you are guaranteed success. I even got personal attacks for my comment from one of those fanatics.
Or even more commonly, like in this case, already successful people attributing their success to "hard work", which is extremely misleading.
The Tyranny of Merit[1] talks about this in a lot more depth.
[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Tyranny-Merit-Whats-Become-Common/dp/...