Silicon Valley’s Secret: Proximity, Stolen Parts, and the Kindness of Strangers
> One of the nice things about Silicon Valley, is, you all have worked next to an idiot who has gone off and been successful<p>That sort of under-cuts the meritocracy message by a lot.<p>I think success is a product of more things than talent, it could be about projected talent as much as what's underneath the hood - confidence as a product of ignorance and narcism is indistinguishable from the real thing, unless tested.<p>And guess what, some of those people who talk big actually become those people by a mixture of opportunity and hard work - I feel like one of those imposters :)<p>But asking a lottery winner on picking the best numbers is nearly as useful as picking a loser on how not to pick them - it's what they do after they win a dice roll that matters (invest, avoid going bankrupt etc).<p>This is not without lessons though - that the failures were made in a consequence-less environment (<i>sic</i> at Nutting & their bankruptcy) and those lessons were carried into aa future success instead of being the opening chapters of a student loan driven panic.