&gt; you&#x27;ll only find out for sure if you&#x27;ll lose when you try. if you don&#x27;t try, you definitely lose.<p>If you&#x27;re going to follow that philosophy, you&#x27;re better off buying a lottery ticket. They&#x27;re a lot cheaper.<p>&gt; should we select movie stars, athletes, and professors at birth? via lottery?<p>I&#x27;ll bite that bullet. Partial allocation by lottery would be a lot less cruel and wasteful than the current system of full allocation by sacrifice.