Frankly, Paul Graham has a lot of money.
Two anecdotes:
1) A pianist in my high school was Eastman or Julliard-bound. One day, I watched her sight-read a new piece. It was beautiful. As someone who struggled mightily sight-reading single-threaded trumpet parts, I asked, "How do you sight-read like that?". The innocent and frank reply: "Oh, I'm just having fun to see what it sounds like."
Sometimes (not always), people can be on another level.
2) The truly outstanding see themselves as normal. I think everyone sees themselves as normal. Freeman Dyson, from [1]: `I asked him whether as a boy he had speculated much about his gift. Had he asked himself why he had this special power? Why he was so bright?
Dyson is almost infallibly a modest and self-effacing man, but tonight his eyes were blank with fatigue, and his answer was uncharacteristic.
“That’s not how the question phrases itself,” he said. “The question is: why is everyone else so stupid?” '
I've never thought that Dyson said this with any malice, simply as an honest reflection of his experience.
For me, if I want to get something done, I have to work really, really hard on it.
[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/12/the-dan...
The next day Kobe has a great game, and after the game Jay asks Kobe something like, "Do you work out that long all the time?" (can't remember the exact question) -- to which Kobe says, "I just wanted to let you know that no matter how hard you work, I'll always outwork you".
For a lot of successful people their joy is their work and they take pride in being great, but still working harder than everyone else.
So is 'art school' Cornell?
Also he's 56, which means he still comes from an era where you might be able 'pay as you go' through college. So as to the question of 'was it money, class, or generational?' I think the answer is 'all three'.
The middle section of the essay describes PG's time in art school, which he attended after graduating from Cornell and going to grad school.