I’m looking for a star but I don’t see one. I see something that looks like an anvil with the letters CCCP above it. Is it meant to be a star?

John wick was more popular when the 2nd came out than when the 1st came out. Hard to attribute all the gains to the movie’s budget without way more data and control groups.

Luck and privilege are simply much, much bigger influences on success than one’s work ethic. It’s been demonstrated time and time again in studies that the circumstances of your birth and your access to things like quality schooling/opportunities are much better indicators of life outcomes than anything else, including intelligence or work ethic. Most successful people in fact do come from privilege or generational wealth. Poor people overwhelmingly stay poor while rich people overwhelmingly stay wealthy or get richer. Kids who are cutting class or failing school are overwhelming less well off or are otherwise disadvantaged compared to kids who excel. My school didn’t even let us cut class because they’d call our parents and suspend us if we did it. Again, statistics show that higher household income and living in a wealthier area are the biggest indicators of a child’s future academic success. Outliers exist of course, but these are factual realities. I did my best in school and got a masters degree but I’m not under any illusions that my hard work was what gave me the edge over anyone. I’m well aware that between my white privlege, being born in Europe to middle class parents, getting an education in America, and having a safe, thoughtful environment around me which fostered my curiosity as a child, there’s not much room left to pat myself on the back. It’s admirable to be self-motivated and to find purpose in working hard for something. But most people are truly doing their absolute best to make it in this world.

Maybe if you care a lot about your job and derive purpose from your job, but I don’t. Neither do most people. I work to live, I don’t live to work. I don’t need to be more efficient or develop in my job, I’m here to get paid and go home. I don’t get paid for working harder or working more efficiently, I get paid per hour and in my company, being friends with the manager matters much more than your actual job performance when it comes to promotions and other benefits. I will always do the bare minimum I need to support my ideal lifestyle, which is having shelter, a safe place for my record collection, and enough time to enjoy my hobbies. I have no interest in making a lot of money, “building a career”, or being successful in a capitalist sense. I don’t plan on ever owning a car, and I want to live within my means. The only development that truly matters to me is becoming a more loving friend, family member, community member, and boyfriend. Maybe become vegetarian at some point too. Capitalism takes advantage of hard workers and “company men/women” and promises them success they rarely attain. No wonder young people are changing jobs every few years in order to climb the salary ladder, there is 0 incentive to develop within most companies. They will take your extra labor/efficiency and give you nothing in return.

Most successful people don’t work harder than non successful people. Success is way more of a lottery than people want to admit. Usually people who succeed get very angry when you point this out because their ego can’t handle it. If hard work and discipline directly led to success, every Mexican house cleaner and field worker I’ve ever known would be a millionaire.

That’s what a comparison is, my friend. One thing is like another thing.