Wow these responses are pretty shocking to me. To me this reads much more like the Steinbeck quote of “Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”
We end up talking about how amazing it is that these people have accomplished what they have but don't bother to consider that there are others who could not possibly have gotten that because they don't have the advantages the other person did.
I'm not super familiar with Phelp's backstory, but I assume he swam a fuckton when he was younger, his parents drove him around the country to events, etc. Many people don't have the time, money and resources to do these things. Telling a poor kid "just do what Michael Phelps did" while ignoring the vast, vast difference between their situations is completely ridiculous and kind of the way our society now works.
Not successful because you couldnt afford to go to school because you had to bring home money to help your parents pay the rent? Hearing "just work as hard as I did" from some white republican kid who got a trust fund is basically the same thing you guys are saying everyone should just overcome.
Let's be honest: the predominant socioeconomic class among hackers and entrepreneurs is a set who have a relatively large set of advantages, many of which are unexamined. This comment thread is a textbook reaction to an accusation that maybe, just maybe, some people have advantages which have directly or indirectly contributed to their success, perhaps as much as any other factor.
Some people call this "loser" talk, when I'd say, aggregated across not just our own extremely narrow cross-section of society, it's pretty realistic.
As he says, the corollary to "just do it" is that if you didn't succeed, it's because you weren't trying. That may not be what anyone here is suggesting (or it may!), but it's undeniable that there's an entire political party in the US which takes this as an article of faith. If you're wealthy, it's because you earned it; if it's poor, you're not working hard enough.
I do think there is something to the idea of XX% of success is just showing up. It's just that "showing up" elides plenty of complexity and it's not often I see people acknowledge that.
We end up talking about how amazing it is that these people have accomplished what they have but don't bother to consider that there are others who could not possibly have gotten that because they don't have the advantages the other person did.
I'm not super familiar with Phelp's backstory, but I assume he swam a fuckton when he was younger, his parents drove him around the country to events, etc. Many people don't have the time, money and resources to do these things. Telling a poor kid "just do what Michael Phelps did" while ignoring the vast, vast difference between their situations is completely ridiculous and kind of the way our society now works.
Not successful because you couldnt afford to go to school because you had to bring home money to help your parents pay the rent? Hearing "just work as hard as I did" from some white republican kid who got a trust fund is basically the same thing you guys are saying everyone should just overcome.