[jychang]

I’d argue wealth is often created by accident. How much wealth did the creation of penicillin create?

If anything, we aren’t being cynical enough towards the concept of “self-made”. Every single genius recognizes that they are standing on the shoulder of giants; would Einstein be possible if he had to invent Newton or the concept of 0 from scratch?

It also helps to remember that many people are working towards the same main ideas at any one time. If the Wright brothers didn’t invent the first plane, many other groups were right behind. Facebook could have failed and a dozen social networks taken its place. There were dozens of competitors to the Apple I and Apple II. We’d still have Windows-like operating systems if Microsoft failed. There were many scrapped covid vaccines that could have stepped up if Pzfier and Moderna failed.

For the person who captures the market and the wealth generated, it doesn’t mean they didn’t put in any work- but they certainly owe their success more to luck and their environment than their own effort. Again, none of the above could have happened in Ethiopia.