I did read the article. > Although widely held, the belief that merit rather than luck determines success or failure in the world is demonstrably false. Yes,

I did read the article. > Although widely held, the belief that merit rather than luck determines success or failure in the world is demonstrably false. Yes, he offers a token line at one point that effort and skill can be relevant. However, most of the article makes a bunch of unsubstantiated claims about Gates's success being due purely to luck, and fortuitous circumstances (as though examining the right tail of the distribution is even relevant, of course, he also doesn't even provide any evidence for his claim anyway).