There are periodic "devastating" events in the valley, maybe not quite as bad but there is a boom-bust cycle in the valley does something similar. The selectio

There are periodic "devastating" events in the valley, maybe not quite as bad but there is a boom-bust cycle in the valley does something similar. The selection bias for positive outcomes is pervasive. There were many, many apprentices working for guys like Verocchio, and pretty much the only one we know of is Da Vinci. That said, just because you only hear of the analogies to Jobs/Woz, Ellison, Page/Brin, Gates, Zuckerberg, doesn't mean there weren't plenty of quite successful individuals. Likely, their work was lost as it wasn't of enough lasting value to survive the political and socioeconomic upheaval of a half-millenium, but I want to believe some merely-very-good people did well. Sadly there's no real way to tell...