Examples like that are really dispiriting because it points to us not being able to create talented people through nurture. American society is pretty focused

Examples like that are really dispiriting because it points to us not being able to create talented people through nurture. American society is pretty focused on success, and many of us blame our mediocrity on a lack of effort, bad parenting, the government, etc. The cold truth might be that even with a perfect work-ethic, upbringing and unlimited resources most of us would fail to do anything original or interesting. If you are doing an ok job of sleeping/eating/exercising and you are relatively disciplined you are probably already performing at like ~90% of your potential. Exercising insane discipline to try and squeeze those last few %s out probably isn't going to turn you into some gifted person.