This is a better way of putting the point I was inelegantly grasping at. The neighbor kid is just an industrious kid---they happen to be nailing up drywall, but it's not that nailing up the drywall is why they end up running Berkshire Hathaway (or whatever) later. It's that they're industrious, and have various other traits that---in some other context---would result in them doing whatever else.

Maybe they turn into the engineer who can extract water, if only for reasons of path-dependency. And in a world where water-extraction is a valuable industry, that path-dependent contingency will result in them maybe starting a valuable water-extraction engineering firm. But it's not that nailing up drywall as a kid made them uniquely qualified. It's that they were industrious and smart and had sufficient fortune and whatever else. Which is good, all that stuff is good.

not to be pedantic but drywall is screwed in not nailed. i happen to be a software engineer who has also built actual houses.

You can do both. Usually, nails go along the outside and screws in the "field," but I'll confess that it's been 30 years since I helped my dad do it (I was a big help, I'm sure) so perhaps the state of the art has changed.

Once upon a time it was nailed. Screws are a relatively recent change, I've used both.

The problem with nails is that they walk out over time. Secondarily, they can become "squeaky" when used in floors.

we used ring nails to shoot the subfloor onto the joices. and put down subfloor adhesive. we used nails because they were quick. screws would be better yes.

The depth thing can be a bit misleading unless you've also been at or past that depth.