A neat summary essay by Paul Graham…
Variation in wealth can be a sign of variation in productivity. (In a society of one, they’re identical.) And that is almost certainly a good thing: if your society has no variation in productivity, it’s probably not because everyone is Thomas Edison. It’s probably because you have no Thomas Edisons.
In a low-tech society you don’t see much variation in productivity. If you have a tribe of nomads collecting sticks for a fire, how much more productive is the best stick gatherer going to be than the worst? A factor of two? Whereas when you hand people a complex tool like a computer, the variation in what they can do with it is enormous.
The challenge for most of us is finding our personal area of joy that will put us into that most productive work where we can experience high-performance. For most knowledge workers that area will be largely influenced by personal personality factors, especially at the entry level of most professions where it is least clear which areas/industries/positions a person will find themselves enjoying and by extension excelling.