I respect pg for the quality of his writing (in fact, the piece I linked is what brought me to this site many years ago, I had no idea of his background at that

I respect pg for the quality of his writing (in fact, the piece I linked is what brought me to this site many years ago, I had no idea of his background at that point). Going to decent universities, building a successful startup company in the web space is definitively NOT a 'black swan'. It's something that many people plan, prepare and work very hard at executing for. This concept that pg won some sort of birth lottery and had his path paved with luck is preposterous based on the autobiographical story that I have read. The whole point of Y Combinator is to remove a lot of the luck component by providing guidance that detaches the need to made lucky decisions, and gets down to being able to execute on an idea making something people want. The whole thing is as merit based as it can get. While lots of people want to say 'but what about a poor man in Africa' as some sort of reductio ad absurdum to prove a point - realistically what we are talking about here is someone born in a western democratic liberal country and the chance at a decent education. You also don't have to be a billionaire to achieve what most people would like to achieve. Drawing out the extremes of the argument makes the discussion useless for the audience of this site. What I take umbrage at is a lot of people say 'waah it's not fair someone got lucky' and then spending the rest of their lives in this refrain, pointing out the inequities of the world and refusing to achieve. All this tiresome '1% unfair inequitable boo hoo not fair' whining is unproductive and self indulgent. If you want wealth or success get out and try and achieve it. The percentages of succeeding are low. The percentages of succeeding are 0 unless you try. I have not been as successful as Paul Graham. I certainly don't cry about it and moan about some priveledge he got and I didn't, as though that gives me an excuse and a moral hammer to bludgeon people with. My starting hand wasn't as good as many, so I have to play a better game. Whether I ultimately achieve a higher success is entirely within my set of choices, and I don't blame anyone in the world for that. It's my responsibility.