Comment by eastbound | Hacker News Reader

Comment by eastbound | Hacker News Reader

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What if it really takes two generations to be good at something?

Since 1789 (in France) we postulate that inheritance in a societal curse, and postulate that everyone must be equal at birth.

However, there are countless examples where sons of doctors make better doctors, sons of journalists make better journalists, and sons of presidents make better administrators of oil companies in war zones (joke intended).

We should still aim so that it is possible to succeed as an orphan, of course, but we should also recognize that the best tricks ate learnt during teenage years, when you ask “Hey dad, how come the board of a company isn’t salaried? Dad, how did you deal with your last board where you had too many naysayers? How does it work when you have to fire an employee?”

Of course I’ve read my share of books by Ben Horowitz, but of course being the son of such a person gives tremendous advance on how to deal with a lot of situations.

> What if it really takes two generations to be good at something?

This really is the recipe for success. The majority of success is intergenerational.

Someone can come from nothing and become wildly successful, it's true. But it's extremely unlikely. With 8 billion people, occasional rags-to-riches stories are going to happen; even if it's a 1-in-100,000,000 chance that would be about 80 people. These are not the stories to aspire to; they're random anomalies. The stories we should aspire to are the ones of humans setting up future humans for success. Ideally, not even just their children...

> This really is the recipe for success. The majority of success is intergenerational.

I think it's better said that the majority of success is from _iteration_.

In lots of ways, I'm not just a product of my parents' (lack of?) success or their parents' (lack of?) success and so on, but also a product of my iterated local communities and iterated larger society.

> The stories we should aspire to are the ones of humans setting up future humans for success. Ideally, not even just their children...

Be wary of claimed benevolence, for it justifies corpses in the name of the greater good.

History has shown that rising tides lift all boats. We are all the product of millennia of selfish pursuits by bigots, rapists, war profiteers, etc. And yet, the long-term trajectory for the masses is up -- because success iterates not just along family lines, but broadly across society.

It's not just conversations around the dinner table. It's also how you get started vis a vis introductions to the right people, prized starter jobs and educational pathways that may not be widely known (eg, an internship at ___ will set you up for a job later at ___).

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