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Oh come on, this is just survivorship bias, self-help crap. Millionaires are just normal people with lots of money, there's nothing particularly unique about th

Oh come on, this is just survivorship bias, self-help crap. Millionaires are just normal people with lots of money, there's nothing particularly unique about them.

abakker 9y ago
Claiming that this is survivorship bias is off the mark. That is not a criticism that you can level at any long-term study just because you heard it on the internet. If the intent of the study is to evaluate what terms lead to survivorship, then of course your study is going to be full of survivors - as this one is. While the assessment undoubtedly suffers from some bias, that is also the intent, to some degree. It does not seek to say that these are the only reasons people became millionaires, but instead that these were common, correlated behaviors, and that the logical conclusion you might draw from them is that they are also causative.
- frgtpsswrdlame 9y ago
  If you only study millionaires and not the rest of society you have no control. You can't say humility makes people millionaires without looking at all the people with humility who aren't millionaires. This guy hung out with millionaires and is pretending their virtuous traits are somehow unique or somehow the reason they're millionaires. That's the definition of survivorship bias.
TehCorwiz 9y ago
The millionaires down-voting you would beg to differ. But the main conceit isn't that they're normal people, it's that success is most often a combination of luck and the resources (financial, social, etc.) to take advantage of advantageous situations. That's not to say that wealthy don't work hard, but we as people often discount the influence that our uncontrollable circumstances have on where we end up, and almost no-one wants to admit they are where they are because of dumb luck.
- DaiPlusPlus 9y ago
  It’s entirely predicated on luck, but rephrase luck as “opportunity” and see you then need to also have the skills and perseverence to capitalise on that opportunity. Of course, the problem is there is having the luck to be born into a situation where you could develop those skills and attitude, either through genetics or an encouraging family environment.
  - frgtpsswrdlame 9y ago
    Yes, a good way I've seen of phrasing it is that your opportunity depends on 'luck' and in those lucky situations it also (sometimes) requires the skill to capitalize on it. But your skill to capitalize is highly dependent on your 'lot' which is what you were born into (really just another form of luck.)

Oh come on, this is just survivorship bias, self-help crap. Millionaires are just normal people with lots of money, there's nothing particularly unique about them.

abakker 9y ago

Claiming that this is survivorship bias is off the mark. That is not a criticism that you can level at any long-term study just because you heard it on the internet. If the intent of the study is to evaluate what terms lead to survivorship, then of course your study is going to be full of survivors - as this one is. While the assessment undoubtedly suffers from some bias, that is also the intent, to some degree. It does not seek to say that these are the only reasons people became millionaires, but instead that these were common, correlated behaviors, and that the logical conclusion you might draw from them is that they are also causative.

frgtpsswrdlame 9y ago
If you only study millionaires and not the rest of society you have no control. You can't say humility makes people millionaires without looking at all the people with humility who aren't millionaires. This guy hung out with millionaires and is pretending their virtuous traits are somehow unique or somehow the reason they're millionaires. That's the definition of survivorship bias.

TehCorwiz 9y ago

The millionaires down-voting you would beg to differ. But the main conceit isn't that they're normal people, it's that success is most often a combination of luck and the resources (financial, social, etc.) to take advantage of advantageous situations. That's not to say that wealthy don't work hard, but we as people often discount the influence that our uncontrollable circumstances have on where we end up, and almost no-one wants to admit they are where they are because of dumb luck.

DaiPlusPlus 9y ago
It’s entirely predicated on luck, but rephrase luck as “opportunity” and see you then need to also have the skills and perseverence to capitalise on that opportunity. Of course, the problem is there is having the luck to be born into a situation where you could develop those skills and attitude, either through genetics or an encouraging family environment.
- frgtpsswrdlame 9y ago
  Yes, a good way I've seen of phrasing it is that your opportunity depends on 'luck' and in those lucky situations it also (sometimes) requires the skill to capitalize on it. But your skill to capitalize is highly dependent on your 'lot' which is what you were born into (really just another form of luck.)