This is a major point "Outliers" (by Malcom Gladwell). I recently finished listening to the book. He makes a strong case that culture heavily contributes to the

This is a major point "Outliers" (by Malcom Gladwell). I recently finished listening to the book. He makes a strong case that culture heavily contributes to the success of people. He highlights Asian culture for their hard work ethic (positive) as well as the higher power distance index [1] (negative for things like airplane crashes, specifically because it impedes communication proper communication between pilot, copilots and the tower [2]). Other notable aspects of culture (well, in this case language) is that perfect pitch occurs more often in speakers of tonal languages (think chinese), and speakers of languages with shorter words for numbers can remember lists of numbers easier [3] Now does this mean we don't try to fix other things? No. "Culture" is not a panacea for everything I would think. What do you do with those born into a unfavorable circumstances? But I do agree that more often than not we're trying to fix the wrong thing when fixating on outcomes, instead of tools and opportunities. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofstede%27s_cultural_dimensions_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofstede%27s_cultural_dimensio... [2] https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/07/malcolm-gladwells-cockpit-culture-theory-everywhere-after-asiana-crash/313442/ https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/07/malcolm... [3]