[k9s9]

There is ofcourse more to it than that.

"Getting back up" after life knocks you down is a huge factor in their success. There are very few successful adults protected from life's blows given the competitive, cut throat world we live in. They all know something about getting thrown into deep holes and climbing back out.

However, I will say that a majority of successful adults, learn how to be resilient at the expense of the people around them.

Not because they are evil, but because no one has shown them better ways of how to handle situations they haven't faced before.

People don't realize how bad this used to be in the past. Nowadays we have much more access to info, better understanding of the right ways to "cope", better understanding of what to avoid, and the right people/environments that will pull one out of life's deep holes. It's nowhere near perfect but it's much better (if you have the resources as you pointed out).

In the past people were mostly just winging it. It's why you see a whole lot successful people who are also ruthless. And regret it towards the end of their lives as they tally the costs and see examples of better routes they could have traveled.

[ethbro]

It's interesting you bring up access to information: it seems like a blessing and a curse.

On the one hand, I have more information at my fingertips than someone with access to the entire NYC library system would have had in the 1970s.

On the other hand, the outlier-emphasis of social and news media makes me aware of and able to worry about things someone in the 1970s wouldn't have thought to.

I feel like there was probably an optimal internet (for utility and overall positive impact) from ~1970-1998.

In hindsight, we should have more strongly segregated the information internet from the commercial internet, then let each evolve in isolation.