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This is completely irrelevant and misses the point. A counterexample would be someone from a poor background dropping from college to found a startup.

yipbub 8y ago
If it's so easy to find a counterexample would you furnish me with one?
- Arnt 8y ago
  Counterexamples matter a great deal when someone claims that something is a rule without exceptions. They're very nearly pointless when someone states something that has many obvious exceptions but still means something, "men are taller than women", "rich people can take risks that poor people cannot" etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Petersburg_paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Petersburg_paradox BTW.
  - yipbub 8y ago
    Which is what I was pointing out rhetorically... Also, it's not just that rich people can takes risks that poor people cannot. It's that they never risk a minimum standard of living. Poor people making decisions like that do.
yaseer 8y ago
"If it's so easy to find a counterexample would you furnish me with one?" You've misinterpreted what he's saying. He's saying "that isn't a valid counterexample".
skookumchuck 8y ago
> someone from a poor background dropping from college to found a startup Steve Jobs Edit: Jan Koum is another
- alehul 8y ago
  Steve Jobs' family had a nice middle-class life, and his parents even moved so he'd be in a better school district iirc.
  - skookumchuck 8y ago
    Jobs had no money, no connections, no "pedigree", and was a college dropout. Jobs' parents were blue collar, his dad was a repo man, and their background was poor.
    - TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
      Jobs grew up in San Francisco. His father supported an interest in electronics, and he got an in at HP by being mentored by a neighbour who worked there. He joined the HP Explorer's Club and got to see world-leading new products ahead of release at a time when HP were creating incredibly impressive calculators and personal computers. He also attended lectures on the HP campus - which wasn't just educational, but also contributed to his relatively fearless approach to networking. The family may not have been rich, but it's just plain wrong to say he had no connections and no advantages.
      - skookumchuck 8y ago
        Anybody in that area at the time could have done it. And SV was hardly the only place where adults worked on electronics. HP wasn't the only computer company. DEC was in Massachusetts, for example. Texas Instruments was in, well, Texas. Tektronix was in Oregon. Universities all had electronics schools. Radio Shack and HeathKit made electronics learning kits for kids. Los Angeles had a thriving microcomputer industry at the time. The notion that Jobs was in some unique position is not correct.
    - alehul 8y ago
      Poor people aren't able to move just to switch school districts for their child's benefit... Also, they had a nice single-family home with a yard in a suburban area.
throwaway5393 8y ago
Zhou Qunfei, the founder of Lens Technology, came from a very poor background and dropped out of high school at 16 to work at a factory. She eventually started her own company when the factory closed.

yipbub 8y ago

If it's so easy to find a counterexample would you furnish me with one?

Arnt 8y ago
Counterexamples matter a great deal when someone claims that something is a rule without exceptions. They're very nearly pointless when someone states something that has many obvious exceptions but still means something, "men are taller than women", "rich people can take risks that poor people cannot" etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Petersburg_paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Petersburg_paradox BTW.
- yipbub 8y ago
  Which is what I was pointing out rhetorically... Also, it's not just that rich people can takes risks that poor people cannot. It's that they never risk a minimum standard of living. Poor people making decisions like that do.

yaseer 8y ago

"If it's so easy to find a counterexample would you furnish me with one?" You've misinterpreted what he's saying. He's saying "that isn't a valid counterexample".

skookumchuck 8y ago

> someone from a poor background dropping from college to found a startup Steve Jobs Edit: Jan Koum is another

alehul 8y ago
Steve Jobs' family had a nice middle-class life, and his parents even moved so he'd be in a better school district iirc.
- skookumchuck 8y ago
  Jobs had no money, no connections, no "pedigree", and was a college dropout. Jobs' parents were blue collar, his dad was a repo man, and their background was poor.
  - TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
    Jobs grew up in San Francisco. His father supported an interest in electronics, and he got an in at HP by being mentored by a neighbour who worked there. He joined the HP Explorer's Club and got to see world-leading new products ahead of release at a time when HP were creating incredibly impressive calculators and personal computers. He also attended lectures on the HP campus - which wasn't just educational, but also contributed to his relatively fearless approach to networking. The family may not have been rich, but it's just plain wrong to say he had no connections and no advantages.
    - skookumchuck 8y ago
      Anybody in that area at the time could have done it. And SV was hardly the only place where adults worked on electronics. HP wasn't the only computer company. DEC was in Massachusetts, for example. Texas Instruments was in, well, Texas. Tektronix was in Oregon. Universities all had electronics schools. Radio Shack and HeathKit made electronics learning kits for kids. Los Angeles had a thriving microcomputer industry at the time. The notion that Jobs was in some unique position is not correct.
  - alehul 8y ago
    Poor people aren't able to move just to switch school districts for their child's benefit... Also, they had a nice single-family home with a yard in a suburban area.

throwaway5393 8y ago

Zhou Qunfei, the founder of Lens Technology, came from a very poor background and dropped out of high school at 16 to work at a factory. She eventually started her own company when the factory closed.