4 ms·

Hardwork and grit is overrated. Without proper opportunity you can achieve nothing. I wish we keep survivor bias in mind when reading success stories; we shoul

Hardwork and grit is overrated. Without proper opportunity you can achieve nothing. I wish we keep survivor bias in mind when reading success stories; we should ask "out of those who work hard and gritty, how many are successful and how many are actually not?" And not "out of those who are successful, how many are hardworking?" Most of the time, hardwork is just the minimum prerequisite to success that every aspirants have, de-emphasizing the role of luck in life is simply unwise.

deleted 6y ago
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manigandham 6y ago
Hardwork and grit are absolutely not overrated and deliver a comfortable life for millions of people. If you're talking about cases of extraordinary success like this person, then hard work can vastly increase the amount of opportunity you're exposed to. Nobody says luck isn't involved, but you can improve your odds of getting lucky.
- jedrek 6y ago
  Hard work and grit are tied to millions more cases of folks being among the working poor.
frakkingcylons 6y ago
I disagree but only because I have a lower bar in mind for success. Success to me doesn't mean being a multi-millionaire or at the top of your field of interest. To me, a comfortable middle-class life is quite good (and I'm used to it). From that perspective, a cushy upper middle-class life -- the life of most people in software -- is quite a success.
unishark 6y ago
Opportunity is not luck. It is everywhere. Saying opportunity is necessary is like saying air is necessary. The "luck theory" is the one that is damaging. Because the biggest real problem is people don't know about opportunities. This is one big advantage certain immigrant groups have over even locals. They have networks of people from their country telling them where to go, what skills to get, what jobs to get, how to deal with every detail of every hurdle. It's practically a mentoring system for how to succeed in the US.

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manigandham 6y ago

Hardwork and grit are absolutely not overrated and deliver a comfortable life for millions of people. If you're talking about cases of extraordinary success like this person, then hard work can vastly increase the amount of opportunity you're exposed to. Nobody says luck isn't involved, but you can improve your odds of getting lucky.

jedrek 6y ago
Hard work and grit are tied to millions more cases of folks being among the working poor.

frakkingcylons 6y ago

I disagree but only because I have a lower bar in mind for success. Success to me doesn't mean being a multi-millionaire or at the top of your field of interest. To me, a comfortable middle-class life is quite good (and I'm used to it). From that perspective, a cushy upper middle-class life -- the life of most people in software -- is quite a success.

unishark 6y ago

Opportunity is not luck. It is everywhere. Saying opportunity is necessary is like saying air is necessary. The "luck theory" is the one that is damaging. Because the biggest real problem is people don't know about opportunities. This is one big advantage certain immigrant groups have over even locals. They have networks of people from their country telling them where to go, what skills to get, what jobs to get, how to deal with every detail of every hurdle. It's practically a mentoring system for how to succeed in the US.