I've always found it interesting and poetically apropos that "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" is the expression used to further the "self-made man/personal responsibility" concept of success, and to justify the level of adversity many have to deal with in order to succeed.

It's apropos because, physically speaking, it is fucking impossible to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. In fact, the phrase originated as a way to describe a "ludicrously far-fetched or impossible task."

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pull_oneself_up_by_one%27s_bootstraps

The concept creep that has led to the phrase's current usage, meant to mean, "to improve one's position by one's own efforts," is perfectly reflective of people's misunderstanding of the concept of "making oneself." They're equally nonsensical, and many of us just ignore that.

Successful people love to point out that their lot in life is the result of their hard work and tenacity—and it is. But they never seem to examine that idea further. https://twitter.com/DavidRamsdenWo/status/1330649655164604418?s=20

They never ask themselves, "Where did I *get* this capacity for hard work? Where did I *get* my tenacity?"

They often downplay the role of luck because they feel it minimizes or marginalizes their hard work. They did work hard, after all, so don't they deserve what they have?

The answer is that "deserve" makes no sense in this context, because it implies a level of agency that doesn't exist. *None* of us have it. To say one "deserves" their success or failure is the equivalent to saying they "deserve" their predisposition for colon cancer.

No one picks their genes, their parents, their environment, their upbringing, their psychology, their temperament, their talents, their capacity to learn, or their capacity to excel any more than they choose their height or eye color or level of melanin. That is all pure luck.

Some might say, "Yes, but once they're adults they make their own decisions." Sure, but the decisions they make—and the decisions it occurs to them to make (or not make)—are the result of those prior influences. You simply cannot do that which never occurs to you to do.

Unfortunately, despite our inability to choose any of these things, they are all hugely consequential to how our lives turn out. Our society values certain attributes more than others, it praises certain talents more than others, it rewards certain capacities more than others.

Furthermore, certain life circumstances are more conducive to success than others. Where, when, and to whom you're born directly impact your opportunities and choices. Successful people often ignore this, acting like they've materialized as themselves one day, fully-formed.

Add to this the effects of externalities, where certain communities have historically been at a disadvantage, where critical resources aren't divvied up fairly, and you're likely to see exacerbations of these trends. Success becomes less likely, and exponentially more difficult.

Of course, you'll still see successes. You'll still have extraordinary people who prosper after fighting their way through seemingly insurmountable adversity, and to many this proves that hard work is all it takes. The bootstraps, once again, defying the laws of physics.

But this is an illusion. The tenacity required to succeed, especially when starting from a disadvantage, is just as much a matter of luck, from one's own perspective, as their height or predisposition for colon cancer.

You. Didn't. Pick. Any. Of. This. And. Yet. You. Benefit.

This doesn't mean you have no right to what you've earned. It doesn't mean that behaviors and habits that foster success aren't valuable. Those are good things we should encourage.

What it means is we should have humility about ourselves and compassion (not sympathy) for others.

The fact is that, no matter how much harder you've worked than the next guy, if you were them you'd be in their exact spot.

There, but for the grace of luck, go you. Never forget that.

So when we meditate on our success, we should be mindful of the *colossal* role that good fortune plays in it, and perhaps try not to be smug douchebags about it to others. Instead, we should take our fortunate position and try to help others succeed. https://twitter.com/StrangelEdweird/status/1329133293284028416?s=20

There are no bootstraps. We're all rolls of the dice, and we live and die by that happenstance. We should help each other, not just for this reason, but also because we all benefit from creating a world where more people flourish more often.

Be humble. Be compassionate. Be kind.

@threadreaderapp Please unroll.