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Comment by slack3r | Hacker News Reader

__I am average at my studies, what seemed to be super easy to my peers seemed strenuous for me.__

This is probably going to controversial, but her core problem seems to be an insufficiently high g-factor. She could have contributed to a prominent open source project like the Linux kernel or the C++ compiler. The only barriers to entry are technical competency and ability to focus.

__Hard work has been overly simplified to “If you work hard, you will achieve your dreams.”__

This is true assuming your dreams are calibrated to your capabilities. I presume the problem was her map was not in sync with the territory. Elon Musk can dream about going to Mars. I can't because I simply lack the willpower/drive/intelligence to achieve that.

We need to stop perpetuating the egalitarian fantasy. All men are not created equal.

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It's impossible to tell from this post whether there is a "real" skill gap. It is very easy to look around you in college and think everything is coming easily to everyone else, because you feel the work you're putting into something, but you don't really know or feel how much work other people are putting in. The higher you get into a good engineering program, the fewer of your peers are getting by just on raw talent and not much work. In fact there's a mass exodus every year from engineering programs as freshman who cruised through high school on natural raw talent and not much work encounter their first instance of needing to work in their life, and they can't handle that. The author certainly passed that bar which a lot of others do not, which puts her in the ~50% of those who start an engineering program at all right off the bat.

So you think someone with Masters in Power Engineering and Digital Technology Management should contribute to the Linux kernel as a way to improve their chance for work?

Really?

No. I simply pointed out that someone with sufficiently high intellect would have found other ways to get a job. Unless she is a statistical anomaly people in her situation would have similar experiences. I see no evidence that she was particularly unlucky, and even if she was ― bad things happen to people all the time.

The central point I was trying to make was that hard work pays off, if you are smart enough.

For example, Jeff Dean currently heads Google Brain despite having not having a PhD in machine learning (his PhD was on whole program optimization of object oriented languages). Or John Carmack starting Armadillo Aerospace would be another example.

I expect to be downvoted again, but I stand by what I said.

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