People, including the subject of this post, are more powerful in life on the basis of their literacy, numeracy, confidence, wide familiarity with a broad range of topics and social skills, notably their command of speech acts and attuning to/clicking with others.

The biggest educational determinator of life outcomes is literacy and the biggest determinator of career outcomes not already set at birth is social fluency.

Some suggested reading for the OP that other commenters haven't already touched on:

Tears (2014) - by Kevin Simler, ex-product manager for Palantir Technologies, Inc.: https://meltingasphalt.com/tears/

How Stanford teaches AI-powered creativity (2025) - by Jeremy Utley, director of executive education at the Hasso Plattner school of design: https://youtu.be/wv779vmyPVY

A Billion Voices: China's Search for a Common Language (2016) - by David Moser, former Dean of the Yancheng school at Peking University: https://archive.org/details/billionvoiceschi0000mose

Pre-ASI: The case for an enlightened mind, capital and AI literacy in maximising the good life (2025) - by Hock (pseudonym): https://alitheiablog.substack.com/p/pre-asi-the-case-for-an-...

The Resourceful Life (2023) - by Venkatesh Rao, ex-Xerox consultant and author: https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2023/07/06/the-resourceful-life/