• WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Musk is the best possible evidence of this - an incredibly stupid, fragile edgelord born to other peoples’ wealth, lucked his way into more on the backs of others’ work. Now, everything he touches loses billions.

    • Catsrules@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Not an Elon Fan but saying the richest man is the world was just incredible lucky is a little ridiculous. I am sure luck played a part but I don’t think Musk is the Inspector Clouseau of the business world. At least not in the 90s and 2000s.

      • Cool Beance@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yeah I agree, I don’t think it’s all luck either. But I do paint him in a bad light for not doing well with what he had in his hands. I’ll probably never know what kinds of unseen pressure one tends to experience as a billionaire but he’s really not doing well, to put it kindly.

  • alignedchaos@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    I mean the super rich generally did a lot of things on their way there. The wake up call is usually around the things they do and people they exploit, not equating the difference to dumb luck.

    • Camelbeard@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yes just saying it’s only luck is just wrong.

      Even the rich (not the super billionaire rich), yes they had luck but there is definitely more. Like I work as a freelancer in software development. Lots of people I have worked with are smarter and more talented than I am, but I still make more money. Because they never took the risk of going freelance and keep working for a company that takes halve the money a client pays.

      Some people just don’t like to take risks

      These super rich people usually took big risks, worked for almost free for a while until it started to pay off. Of course for every billionaire there a 1000s of people that took the same risk and completely failed.

      • Jordan_U@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        If you can take multiple large, failed, risks without ending up on the street then you have immense privilege.

        It’s hard for most people to “learn from their failures” and keep taking “big” risks, unless the risk to their own life circumstances was never actually that “big”.

        • Camelbeard@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I don’t think it’s immense privilege. Like when Zuckerberg started Facebook he was 19. When I was 19 I lived with my parents and had almost no costs. I also just partied and didn’t even try to start anything.

    • Dirk Darkly@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Seems like the conclusion of the article ends up admitting luck plays a large role. From the article you linked: “It is important to note that this research can not explain why a particular individual does well or poorly financially. Luck, timing, parents, choice of spouse and many other factors play important roles in shaping an individual’s circumstances.”

      • huge_clock@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I guess if you think about it that way then everything is luck and we live in a deterministic world where none of your choices matter. That still wouldn’t support the argument in the OP meme though.