[anonemouse145]

How did you choose who your parents were going to be?

What part of your carpe diem attitude helped your mom not do drugs and destroy your gestating brain before you were born?

How did you bootstrap your country so that you weren't a victim of war or starvation at a young age?

What part of your attitude ensured you were born into a modern society at the right time to be educated, instead of being a pre-agrarian human ancestor?

What part of your free will in life ensured you'd be the sort of tech person who'd post on HN rather than perhaps an ascetic who'd be living a life of poverty on the streets of Bangladesh to combat consumerist attitudes? Would that be a wrong choice to make?

That said, correlation and causation. The movers and shakers of society are likely to believe they had more control in their life. Not necessarily the other way around. But it can be helpful to envision yourself as being in control of more of your life than you really are.

[elnygren]

This doesn’t change what I said though does it?

I never implied that anyone could do those things.

The point was that you’re not automatically participating in the “get lucky to become successful” lottery.