Unfortunately this world you talk about doesn't exist anymore.
Now we live in the world where "it is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose".
People hear "if you want to win, go to university" so they do, and they still lose.
People hear "work long hours and make an impact at your job if you want to win" so they do and still lose.
Meanwhile the "winners" are more visible than ever. And you point at them and say "I'm doing all the things they are doing why am I not winning" and there are no real answers. Either you're missing something or winning/losing is down to being lucky enough to do all of the right things but also at the right time and right place.
This is a force that creates limits in different opportunities. The example that I use is "how many networking protocols does a company need?" At most, maybe, two. So, you get a limit of the number of people that understand protocols well.
This is a funny thing about university too in that you get a lot of exposure, but those ideas just kind of feed you a bit rather than something that you can use in a career. How many people are actually going to use their OS, DB, etc in real-life? Well, at full scale, not many.
I’ve long liked this Picard quote, even though it can be equally discouraging as it can be encouraging, depending on how it’s taken.
Social Security keeps almost 22.5 million people out of poverty, for example [1]. Minimum wage increases helps millions of workers at a time.
Startups are great to get rich and cash out, but not for the improvements we’re discussing at scale. Arguably, most startups have made things net worse (the gig economy, real estate price inflation, gambling on digital tokens, etc).
I’m tangentially fond of several parts of government including functions like the US Digital Service; maybe start there if you’re a technologist. Less policy and politicking, more code, but you’re still getting to wield the resources government has to offer.
[1] https://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/social-securit...