Neil Stephenson addresses this in his book, Anathem.
He states it's a fact "well known" within the military etc. that a certain percentage of folks respond very well to training for high risk, high intensity, high pressure situations (i.e facing live fire in combat) while a certain percentage simply flub and perform no better than someone who hadn't had the years of prior training.
Thing is, you don't know who's who until the event happens.
Anyway read the book it's really good in you're into this sort of idea, and into hackerish ideas in general
He states it's a fact "well known" within the military etc. that a certain percentage of folks respond very well to training for high risk, high intensity, high pressure situations (i.e facing live fire in combat) while a certain percentage simply flub and perform no better than someone who hadn't had the years of prior training.
Thing is, you don't know who's who until the event happens.
Anyway read the book it's really good in you're into this sort of idea, and into hackerish ideas in general