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Where Warren Buffet would have landed if he was born in Afghanistan? I have thought about this question a lot recently without any satisfaction.
by drieddust 9y ago
Where Warren Buffet would have landed if he was born in Afghanistan?
I have thought about this question a lot recently without any satisfaction.
- mi100hael 9y agoI think Warren still would have done pretty well for himself. Maybe not richest in the world, but he was out selling all manner of things like gum, soda, and golf balls even when he was in primary school. He's a natural entrepreneur. But Warren is an outlier among outliers. Bill Gates has said himself that he doesn't think he would have been able to become a billionaire with Microsoft had he not gone to a swanky private high school that had a computer back when no one had computers.
- 0xcde4c3db 9y agoBuffett himself has raised the same point, saying that he won the "ovarian lottery". He doesn't deny that he's uncommonly talented, but readily acknowledges that his particular talents wouldn't be such an advantage if he hadn't been born into a society where they are highly valued.
- giardini 9y agoMy tendency is to say "Well, but that didn't happen, so discussing it isn't fruitful." But counterfactuals seem to be part of our reasoning processes ("If i had turned left at the last light I would be closer to the restaurant.") and they do often capture the imagination (alternative histories, etc.): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterfactual_conditional https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterfactual_conditional
- drieddust 9y agoI don't think your argument makes sense given the question.
- antisthenes 9y agoThat tendency is valid when you're plotting your own future strategy, because you can't go back in time. However when you're looking at society in aggregate, you have to consider what will happen, so the conversation is still useful when planning for the future (since people will be at different points in their lives) of the group as a whole.