"Correlation does not imply causation." Stop saying that. To quote Edward Tufte: "Correlation is not causation, but it sure is a hint." In this case, I don'

"Correlation does not imply causation." Stop saying that. To quote Edward Tufte: "Correlation is not causation, but it sure is a hint." In this case, I don't know if fundraising should be considered "success", but I'm reasonably sure that graduating from Stanford does a lot to grease the funding skids in Silicon Valley. In other words, it might well be a causative factor for success. The appearance of a whole bunch of smoke strongly suggests a fire, not a big smoke machine.