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If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich? Turns out it’s just chance. (2018) (technologyreview.com)
17 points by cfield 2129 days ago
4 comments

The automatic assumption between “smart” and “rich” is a link made by stupid people or the just plain intellectually lazy.

I’ve met smart people who enjoy intellectual challenge but are low in industriousness so don’t desire the process of monitizing the intellect

Smart people who are low in orderliness so they are too chaotic to focus enough to monitize.

Smart people who have particular skills that a capitalistic society doesn’t value.

And what is the definition of “smart” here? The article spouting off IQ numbers is the bare minimum effort to try and quantise something that in reality has multiple dimensions - fluid intelligence, domain knowledge, wisdom, originality, creativity, all of which are dimensions of smart but not always connected to wealth

All that “Smart == Rich” does is create entitlement and bitterness among the lazy intellectuals and should be stamped out - if you want to be rich, being smart can help, but so much more is required.

A very common thing I see is smart people with low self-confidence/self-esteem. They have a belief that they're not good enough to "make it" or that they're not deserving. They will of course not get rich, because they never really try.

Conversely I see not-so-smart people who do make it, because they're confident and believe they'll make it.

I think success is much more dependent on mentality than smarts, but people focus on smarts because it is somewhat quantifiable.

While this is undoubtedly true, the 80/20 rule doesn't apply to wealth -- at least not anymore. Today, the top 1% of the world's population has more wealth than the other 99% combined.
This is a contradiction. There can't be greater than 100% of the wealth in the world.
Not a contradiction.

Imagine a pool of 100 people. The richest person has $100, everyone else has $1.

There's a total of $199, and the richest 1% have more than half the total wealth with $100.

I'm not saying this is the distribution of the real world, but that statement alone is not a contradiction.

While disputed, here's the article[0] where I got those numbers (2016). It's definitely not 80/20.

[0]https://www.bbc.com/news/business-35339475

If you're so rich then why aren't you smart?
Turns out: It’s just chance.
If you are so healthy, why did you get cancer?