I don't love the wizard metaphor either. Mainly because I don't like buying into the ego behind it. Kent Beck had a great talk (happiness at work, I believe) where he talked about the downsides of seeking ego validation through one's work.
I'd much rather treat these as pretty common sense, learnable lessons that are accessible to anyone.
As for one's output being mostly based on luck? I must disagree with you. I find those that care about what they're doing, and why they're doing it - consistently outperform those that aren't invested in what they're doing. And I think there are those that are more suited to our line of work than others (whether due to how their minds work, or otherwise).
Luck does however play a part in the chances we get to learn and to prove ourselves, especially if you're not born into a relative position of advantage. But to sum up one's contributions, skills, talents and effort to be just luck? That seems dismissive.
I'd much rather treat these as pretty common sense, learnable lessons that are accessible to anyone.
As for one's output being mostly based on luck? I must disagree with you. I find those that care about what they're doing, and why they're doing it - consistently outperform those that aren't invested in what they're doing. And I think there are those that are more suited to our line of work than others (whether due to how their minds work, or otherwise).
Luck does however play a part in the chances we get to learn and to prove ourselves, especially if you're not born into a relative position of advantage. But to sum up one's contributions, skills, talents and effort to be just luck? That seems dismissive.