(4) There are no such things as geniuses, and even if there were you are not one of them.
There are two parts to this, the first “There are no such things as geniuses” is not proclaimed by anyone serious, the second, “you are not one of them” is basically correct if you rephrase it as “if you need to ask whether you are one of them, you are not.”
The old wizard sighed. His half-glasses eyes looked only at her, as though they were the only two people present. “Miss Granger, it might be possible to discourage witches from becoming Charms Mistresses, or Quidditch players, or even Aurors. But not heroes. If someone is meant to be a hero then a hero they will be. They will walk through fire and swim through ice. Dementors will not stop them, nor the deaths of friends, and not discouragement either.”
“Well,” Hermione said, and paused, struggling with the words. “Well, I mean… what if that’s not actually true? I mean, to me it seems that if you want more witches to be heroes, you ought to teach them heroing.”
I don’t know if that last paragraph is the author’s view, and whether there is any evidence/consensus for it. I go by what I see, and this is a person possessed to overcome obstacles over and over again. Musk is an extreme example, but in general all the classic tech moguls are “natural heroes” in that sense. The burning need inside to do “world optimization” cannot be quenched.
I like the post, but just to pick on one thing
There are two parts to this, the first “There are no such things as geniuses” is not proclaimed by anyone serious, the second, “you are not one of them” is basically correct if you rephrase it as “if you need to ask whether you are one of them, you are not.”
I don’t know if that last paragraph is the author’s view, and whether there is any evidence/consensus for it. I go by what I see, and this is a person possessed to overcome obstacles over and over again. Musk is an extreme example, but in general all the classic tech moguls are “natural heroes” in that sense. The burning need inside to do “world optimization” cannot be quenched.