Likely the latter. Do not conflate renumeration or political views with intelligence, curiosity or just street smarts.

All of these forms of intelligence are genetically valid, but phenotype is determined by environment. You may get a great farmer, or you might get a researcher depending on environmental conditions...

So yes, they do matter a lot on outcome. If you haven't found a computer early, there could be a problem of you being outmatched and not proceeding alongside that path.