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by david38 1581 days ago
No. A smart person can always get a well paying job and still be considered successful by his peers or family.

The son of a wealthy family may think going to Google is the same as failure. He has the money to try over and over again and does so because working for someone else is like being a sheep.
1 comments
massinstall 1581 days ago
You’re subtly implying that this smart person also has the resume to be allowed to be interviewed in the first place. (A common bias of thought by people working in tech, from my experience).

There are people out there whose problem is not that they aren’t smart, but that they don’t have the resume that is aligned with HR filters. Their two biggest and relatively substantial hurdles are: 1) not getting a chance for even a first interview because they are immediately being rejected purely based on their resume, and 2) having a weak position going into salary negotiations.

So, imho “a smart person can always get a well paying job” is a gross oversimplification often made by people who are not in such circumstances.

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jjj123 1580 days ago
Agree with everything you said, but just want to add a couple additional hurdles to even being considered “smart”:

- going to a bad public school because you live in a poor area has ripple effects that may put you in a worse position than some private prep school kid

- if you grew up in poverty, your brain will literally grow differently due to chronic stress, environmental toxins, lack of stimulation, etc. [1].

We pretend like filtering for “smart” is fair, but the opportunity to be smart is heavily weighted by privilege.

1: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4811314/

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DoreenMichele 1580 days ago
Years ago, I saw a study that said that there is as much child neglect and drug abuse in rich neighborhoods as in ghettos. Good parents tend to be middle class because, yes, you need to be able to feed the kids adequately etc but you also need to actually spend time with the kids and care about them.

Money can't buy you love.

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jjj123 1580 days ago
It can’t buy love, but it can buy food security, shelter, medical care, and decent schooling.

I’m not saying growing up rich is always easy, but the point is it’s _more likely_ to be easy than if you’re poor.

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DoreenMichele 1580 days ago
Cher once said "I've been rich and I've been poor. Rich is better."

Certainly, all other things being equal, it's generally better to have more resources. But life isn't quite that simple and sometimes the price involved in successfully pursuing money involves a human cost.

If you can have lots of money and also have time for the children and also are a decent person, etc, cool. Some people pull that off.

And some people don't.

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