| Indeed. Where are all the multibillion unicorn startups created by people from working class backgrounds? Meanwhile: Elon Musk - engineer father, privately educated Jeff Bezos - landowning grandfather who was also regional director of the Atomic Energy Commission, engineer father Bill Gates - father lawyer, mother on the board of IBM, privately educated Steve Jobs - working class adoptive parents (but a complicated and interesting genetic background), father not an engineer but encouraged tinkering Larry Page - father had PhD in CS and encouraged tinkering on hardware around the house Sergey Brin - father maths professor, mother NASA researcher I'm not sure if this has been researched, but it looks as if success in tech correlates with high IQ parents and plenty of opportunities for experimentation and hands-on tinkering. I'm sure there are people doing okay in tech who had no parental input at all, but I'd guess they're much rarer than those who had opportunities and encouragement. |