Why do people have such a hard time accepting this? People readily accept that it's luck for someone to grow to 7 feet tall and become an elite basketball player. Yes, it still takes a lot of hard work to reach the NBA and not everyone that tall makes it, but no amount of hard work can turn a 6 foot tall person into a 7-footer.
I see no reason not to think that everything else about a person is similarly determined by luck, even the fact that someone is a hard worker at all.
I think the biggest myth of all, in Western society, is the myth of laziness. Spend a little time talking to anyone that society brands as lazy (i.e. pot-smoking video gamers) and what you'll find is a discouraged and disillusioned person. What we call "laziness" is really learned helplessness in response to an ever-increasingly complex and unfair society.
If every trait associated with success (intelligence, conscientiousness, grit, drive, determination, etc) were as visible as height, we'd have a much harder time justifying the labelling of people as "lazy."
I see no reason not to think that everything else about a person is similarly determined by luck, even the fact that someone is a hard worker at all.
I think the biggest myth of all, in Western society, is the myth of laziness. Spend a little time talking to anyone that society brands as lazy (i.e. pot-smoking video gamers) and what you'll find is a discouraged and disillusioned person. What we call "laziness" is really learned helplessness in response to an ever-increasingly complex and unfair society.
If every trait associated with success (intelligence, conscientiousness, grit, drive, determination, etc) were as visible as height, we'd have a much harder time justifying the labelling of people as "lazy."