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Re:Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’? by robocat on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @01:52PM (#27607637)
Your example is like saying playing NBA basketball makes you taller.

His point was that there are plenty of people that don’t become wealthy even though they work hard and have hustle. And there are plenty of wealthy people that didn’t need to work hard to get it.

Looking at the self-made wealthy will select for people that “do”, but that does not imply that “do” makes you wealthy.

Re:Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’? by sokoloff on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @02:17PM (#27608019)
For any given individual "do" is almost surely better than "not do". That's the choice facing an individual as they contemplate how to live their life.
Re:Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’? by asoneth on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @04:10PM (#27609554)
I completely agree. But I there's a middle ground between "nothing you do matters" and "you can accomplish absolutely anything if you put your mind to it". People at either extreme of the spectrum are more likely to end up disappointed with their lives than someone in the middle.
Re:Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’? by robocat on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @02:29PM (#27608196)
I have just decided to be four inches taller than I am /s.

I have depressed friends that I believe can’t reasonably be expected to just decide to “do”, and I have other friends that seem to naturally have an abundance of “do”.

Yes, we can learn the skill, or we can be taught the skill, but otherwise your statement seems unrealistic to me.

Re:Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’? by shadowoflight on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @04:09PM (#27609535)
I think one important thing that we, as a society, need to respect is that the amount of "do" it takes a given person to do a given task is very different from the amount of "do" it takes another person to do that same task.

For example, it may take somebody who's depressed the same amount of "do" to get out of bed and eat a yogurt as it takes a go-getter, "neurotypical" [0] person to get up, cook a healthy breakfast, go to the gym, take a shower, get to work, and get through their first couple tasks of the day.

[0]: I put "neurotypical" in scare quotes because I'm not sure neurotypical is even really a thing, it's just the term we use for people whose mental makeup fits well into our society and work culture.

Re:Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’? by andrewjl on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @02:44PM (#27608393)
IMO both you and GP are correct, ultimately whether the decision to "do" helps or not relies on individual circumstance and context plus on chance factors.
Re:Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’? by gotoeleven on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @02:16PM (#27607994)
Im not sure what your point is. Your statement

>>> His point was that there are plenty of people that don’t become wealthy even though they work hard and have hustle. And there are plenty of wealthy people that didn’t need to work hard to get it.

is a trivially correct, banal point. The parent comment was implying with his "I know even more people who are rich and lazy" comment something that, while it may be true for the people he encounters, is not true for society at large.

Re:Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’? by robocat on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @02:37PM (#27608304)
You said “it is a myth that most rich people inherited their wealth”, which you introduced as a subject, and I don’t think his comment was trying to say anything about your point exactly, either way. He said he was talking anecdotally, i.e. he was explicitly talking about his experiences which are true by definition, and not generalising to what your experience might be.
Re:Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’? by mcguire on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @03:10PM (#27608710)
"The parent comment was implying [...] something that, while it may be true for the people he encounters, is not true for society at large."

Do you have a source for that?