That I agree with but I would add the caveat that said book cases must be full of books that are not just fluff travel books (though I enjoy those too). The truth is that those who learn to read and enjoy reading at an early age will do well in school even if they are not of superior IQ. Hard work and persistence pay off when studying.
My auntie (who was a rocket scientist) used to say that she would rather work with a C student than someone with straight As. Not because the A student wasn’t bright, but rather because they weren’t teachable. The A student thought they were bright and had all the answers. They had never failed. So when things didn’t go ‘according to plan’ they had no way to dig down and find root causes. The C student on the other hand had worked hard to understand the material and often came up with the one or two simple questions that enlightened everyone not because of the brilliance of the question but the very simplicity of it. In trying to understand the basics of the problem the C student would ask the key question because he was trying to understand the problem rather than trying to come up with some clever ‘solution’
Great insight, thanks for sharing. Your aunt sounds like a very interesting woman.