| I agree with everything you wrote, and struggle with how to come to grips with my own privilege that allows me to take more risks than others because of a safety net (I do not have a trust fund and could definitely be wiped out if things went downhill, but I trust that my family could help me with a roof over my head and food in my belly). That said, I think the quote was taken somewhat out of context. Here’s the original paragraph from Altman: > It’s not entirely clear to me why working hard has become a Bad Thing in certain parts of the US, but this is certainly not the case in other parts of the world—the amount of energy and drive exhibited by entrepreneurs outside of the US is quickly becoming the new benchmark. The preceding paragraph talks about finding your joy/purpose and working hard at it as well. He also has an entire section about how to make it easy to take risks (cover your basics first) so you can take advantage of any lucky breaks where you could work hard and reap the potential gains. I agree that it is presumptuous to assume that everyone can “cover the basics” and still not have time to work hard on other things and I do think that our society and culture of individualism are to blame. At the end of the article there’s an HN comment amended that advocates for universal basic income and laments the fact that opportunity is “unevenly distributed.” So there is an acknowledgment of the true problem, even though it’s almost negated by the assertion that since Altman has seen people go from rags to riches it’s definitely “possible.” I hope for more than the “possibility” of success for anyone when they are working hard, and I would hope that everyone else shares that sentiment. Anyway, it’s a slightly more nuanced take than what was quoted for this article, and it’s probably worth a read in its entirety: https://blog.samaltman.com/how-to-be-successful |