Most of your data reading is wrong, and there’s little you can do about it.
It is extremely common to find evidence to corroborate our pre-existing view of the world: it’s a natural part of how your brain works, called Confirmation Bias.
Ergo when you happen to find data that confirm your suppositions, you should question it double as much.
In spite of being aware of this, and having spent some time studying the issue, I am fully aware that I do this all the time: as said, there’s not a lot that we can do about it, so I guess that being aware is the best (only) way to approach it.
You know those motivational shitposts on Social media, one of the things people like the most (and that’ll get you a lot of interactions). Like ‘shoot for the moon and you’ll succeed’ or ‘successful entrepreneurs wake up at 5 am!’, implying that if you wake up at 5, then you’ll be in their number.
No you won’t.
It’s MAYBE just going to increase your percentage of possibility of succeeding, and by a very very small, if not risible, margin. I can bet good money that the ratio of rich people who do get up at 5 is very similar to the ratio of non-rich people who get up at 5. Exactly like the ratios of rich and non-rich people who do not get up at 5. The argument:
‘Elon Musk gets up at 5; Elon Musk is a billionaire; therefore, waking up at 5 makes one a billionaire’
is absolutely fallacious: indeed, Elon Musk is also a South African, and I know quite a few South Africans who are not billionaires, as far as I know.
There are going to be other factors with a much stronger influence, for instance, let’s guess, aehm, being BORN RICH. Now that’s a game changer. Only, you don’t want to believe it: it’s much more satisfactory to think that becoming a billionaire is as easy as getting up at 5.
But if I want you to like/share/subscribe, I’ve got to give you something don’t I? And I cannot just tell you ‘be rich’. And make no mistake, that kind of post is but clickbaiting, nothing more.
I do not mean to say not to get up at 5: in fact, I do. But I do that and several other little things to feel happy about myself, and proud of what I do, which is my vision of success. If it’ll make me rich? I don’t think so.
Soundtrack: