Might I point out an equally probable explanation for that set of observations?

First, they’re evaluating things in terms of “success” in an environment predicated upon test performances. You do well on the tests, you get offered better and more varied school options, and get tracked into advanced courses there. You have better opportunities for networking, and you leave with better credentials. Of course, the people who do well on the tests are going to show better life-long success rates–The system is rigged in their favor.

So, the folks with better discipline and more self-actualized goal-creating and -seeking? They’re not going to do well in that environment if they’re not also “test takers”. No wonder the studies show that those traits don’t correlate very well.

What you have to do is to stand back and look at the entire shoddy edifice, and ask yourself if the shitty results we see around us aren’t due to the fact that we’re using tests to select for the exact wrong attributes, and what we’re actually encouraging are a breed of specific autistic savants that are more “idiot savant” than actual “savant”.

Look at Zuckerberg for an example; the man demonstrates behavioral cues that should serve as warning signs to everyone around him, and his corporate methods are geared towards making him and his fellows extremely powerful at the cost of profound societal damage. He’s either unaware, or uncaring of the side-effects.

He also may very well be a front man. My suspicion about all these “social media” fronts is that you couldn’t possibly create a better means of easing life for the various intelligence and surveillance agencies than the various social media sites. I mean, hell… They’re getting people to post their most intimate information, freely, things that a generation ago would have served as blackmail material. Genius.

Long-term, though? I think it is going to result in an essentially shameless society, one where you can freely admit to being a child molester and not have the slightest worries about social censure or approbation. Where that ends, I’ve got no idea, but I can see something like that looming in the distance.

Or maybe not. Meta-analysis published in 2020: “In a representative sample grit [defined as 'perseverance and passion for long-term goals'] has a negligible effect on educational and economic success compared to intelligence.”

- Social Psychological and Personality Science
- Original manuscript (pdf)