Largely, successful people have little idea what they did to succeed at something. I observed this first in others and then in myself when trying to teach other

Largely, successful people have little idea what they did to succeed at something. I observed this first in others and then in myself when trying to teach others. One reason is - like PG says - the inclination for activities is more nature vs nurture than we like to think. We want the success to be caused by our choices and intelect. When it was largely chosen for us at birth. Another aspect is post fact rationalization. Again like he says the unconscious mind decides first. Then the rational part tries to explain the choice but it often fails even to identify it, let alone pinpoint the reasons for it. Third: teaching is mostly done through example and practicing toghether. Simple words are very ineffective at passing on experience. And finally successful actions depend on context. For example what makes appropriate bussiness conduct varies from culture to culture, varies in time as the culture changes, is different even in the same culture depending on social class, etc. And these are just some points in the infinite variable group I called context. All this makes such articles pretty much pointless as a recipe for success. But I'm not sure it is intended as that. There is value in the text, it's just not all true and all applicable to everybody. But then which text is?