I feel like this is stating the obvious and putting the emphasis on the exact wrong end of it.
"Oh no! Think about all the potential geniuses we are missing out on! We must be doing something wrong!"
Ok, thought about it.
My conclusion is:
"Wow, the rate of genius production has never been higher, we must really be doing something right."
Could it be better? Sure. Is it getting better? According to Factfulness: sure.
I just don't understand the ridiculous in-built assumption that we are somehow wronging society and the potential geniuses themselves by them not being in a time and a place that makes use of the quality of the substrate of those particular individuals.
Well, sorry but nature doesn't optimize for the individual, it optimizes for the whole.
You may as well get equally mad at something silly like "why doesn't everyone always roll a 6?"
I think you missed the point that the opportunity is not equal, as a person if you grew up in rural Georgia and not knowing what to do with your life because you didn't get the memo kinda screws your future. It's about giving the opportunity for the smart minds to work on impactful things and frankly, if I would have that chance of a privileged kid, I would take it. Basically there are ways how to fix it, the question is what is the most effective way... Think about cheating on dropping the dice based on a pattern that always grants you two threes.
My point is it's not actually broken. It's working. It's working very well.
Although it doesn't tend to, opportunity _could_ arise anywhere. So, potential geniuses are peppered everywhere such that if opportunity were to arise there there are people who can take advantage of it.
The assumption that it should work the other way around is ridiculous.
Opportunity isn't for geniuses. Geniuses are for opportunity.
The point of the article is that majority of people are not given opportunity to become geniuses and frankly you don't even have to be one to make an impact. You don't just get born a genius its a process with lots of puzzle pieces (parents, education, environment). If your primary goal when you grow up is to not starve to death, you can hardly allocate time to study physics and make discoveries. However, tell it to the millions in Africa without food and education that the opportunity is everywhere and you will get skinned alive.
"Oh no! Think about all the potential geniuses we are missing out on! We must be doing something wrong!"
Ok, thought about it.
My conclusion is:
"Wow, the rate of genius production has never been higher, we must really be doing something right."
Could it be better? Sure. Is it getting better? According to Factfulness: sure.
I just don't understand the ridiculous in-built assumption that we are somehow wronging society and the potential geniuses themselves by them not being in a time and a place that makes use of the quality of the substrate of those particular individuals.
Well, sorry but nature doesn't optimize for the individual, it optimizes for the whole.
You may as well get equally mad at something silly like "why doesn't everyone always roll a 6?"