What's the old saying: luck is really when preparation meets opportunity? That makes perfect sense to me, though I'd add "talent" to the mix, too...
I'm with you, ebeth. I'm not a big believer in luck either. No, we don't have control over the whole world, but I think we have control of quite a lot, and we have the ability to see patterns and circumstances developing and respond accordingly even more so. Do circumstances affect us? Of course. But I think we have even more effect on our circumstances if we choose to. And I agree that smarter people (and there are many kinds of smart!) tend to choose to affect their circumstances more regularly.
I worked my way through college waiting tables. The restaurants I worked at were not places full of GT people, not in any sense. Life was very narrow for the people there. I found it deeply depressing how little control they took over their lives. Things "just happened" to them. They said things like "Who coulda seen that coming" a lot. And I pretty much always thought, "Well, *I* could have! Cause and effect, guys!" They saw luck, I saw pattern. They threw up their hands and felt helpless, I saw them making bad choices.
Are there smart people with blind spots? Oh yes! Some bigger than others.
But I never saw such abdication of personal control by such a large group of people as I saw at those restaurants. It was depressing...and eye-opening.
Circumstance matters. But I think there's a lot more to GTness than when your birthday is, and I think there's more to success than how much time you put in on an endeavor.
Then again...I value hard work, but some people are just born better at things than others. I was a better writer in college than my classmates, and I'll guarantee you that I spent less time doing it than they did. I never kept a journal, I wrote my papers at the last minute and didn't revise them, etc. I know I didn't spend 10,000 hours writing before I wrote my novel. Nowhere close!
OTOH, I guarantee you that I could spend 100,000 hours--a million hours!--perfecting my jump shot, and I still wouldn't make it in the WNBA. I don't have the talent and I never will. Work matters. Choices matter. But talent matters, too. There's no vacuum here. I'd put birthdays pretty low on the list of things that matter...
My reading list grows every time I read this thread. Love it!
