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> You see this often when someone with prodigious genetic ability doesn't want to admit to others or themselves that their success was determined before they we
by duped 3y ago
> You see this often when someone with prodigious genetic ability doesn't want to admit to others or themselves that their success was determined before they were born
I don't think many people asked Yao Ming if being 7'6" helped with his basketball career, or Michael Phelps if his human flipper feet helped win a medal or two. But they have spoken at length about how they trained for their careers, and sane people can understand that being a genetic freak doesn't make you a world class anything. It predisposes you to success if you seek it - and both those people spent an enormous amount of their youth working to get there.
The point is that success is not determined before you're born, and reasonable people understand that there's such a thing as variance in human anatomy.
- paulryanrogers 3y agoSuccess in the NBA and most Olympic sports is probably ruled out before you are born. For those for which it is not ruled out, they are a vanishingly small subset: good genes, born in stable country, family wealthy enough to afford training from a young age, parents who support/force the training. (I met an Olympic windsurfing candidate; he was tall, fit, relatively financially independent, born to a community near big lakes with friends enjoying the sport, and obsessed with the sport.) Success financially (depending on what threshold you use) is largely ruled out by birth for most everyone ever born. Exceptions occur, and some places and time periods may have afforded the opportunity to more people, yet always a sliver. So technically success isn't entirely determined before you're born. But for most it is at least off the table, unless the threshold is very low or they are exceptionally lucky and driven.
- atleastoptimal 3y agoBeing a genetic freak isn't sufficient but is necessary to be world class