How Your Birth Month Can Help (Or Hurt) You
Believe it or not, being born in a specific month can have profound affects on your biology. For example, being born with less sunlight can affect different stages of development in the womb. Sunlight stimulates the production of Vitamin D, which affects respiratory and brain development. No, this isn't astrology, but statistical analysis have shown behavioral similarities between people born in the same month. If you've read Malcolm Gladwell's Outlier's, you would have read about how an abnormal amount of athletes tend to be born at the beginning of their school year, giving them a longer time to mature relative to their peers.
Refer to the article by Business Insider for all the months, but here's a few examples that you may find interesting:
JUNE: June has the highest number of Nobel Prize winners and CEO's.
June babies finally catch a break because they receive more exposure to sunlight in utero and after birth, Ebers said. But because they weren't exposed to sunlight in the early months of development, they are more likely to suffer from vision problems, a study of 300,000 Israeli soldiers found.
SEPTEMBER: The highest school achievers tend to be born in September because they're the oldest in their classes.
According to the same Institute for Fiscal Studies report, they are the most likely to go to college and pursue a professional career. They're at an unfair (dis)advantage because they're the oldest in the class as children and master new concepts more easily.
Example: Warren Buffett: August 30, 1930 (I'll count it as September), Lloyd Blankfein: September 20, 1954
I know what you're thinking, correlation does not equal causation and an infinite amount of variables exist. However, I do believe that there is some value in knowing this. I'd also like to share my birth month November, which made me smirk a little.
NOVEMBER: More serial killers are born this month than any other.
They're also known pessimists. Scientists in a 2005 Swedish study theorized this is because they're deprived of dopamine, the "happy chemical" that's also released with exposure to sunlight, after birth. The study surveyed 30,000 people on how "lucky" they felt, and November babies ranked the lowest.
While I do agree that I can be cynical and skeptical (but definitely not the serial killer part) especially with earnings and economic forecasts, I have the same skepticism towards this article. Perhaps that's irony. Regardless, this article is more amusing than actionable. You can also find plenty of examples that don't fit the description. Obama was born in August, and August babies presumably struggle the most in school being the youngest of their class. Again, these studies look for the rule, rather than the exception. But if you were to ask me if I would consider timing my children's birth month, well, having them in a month that can give them the optimal sunlight at birth wouldn't be the worst thing.
Thoughts?
What's up Malcolm Gladwell?
"Scientific" findings
I was interested until I saw it was from BI...
I was born on September 20.
Does it mean that I'll be the CEO of Goldman Sachs one day?
No, because as a June baby, I'll be in first. lol get in line
I was born in early september and my son was born in late september
gonna take over the world all you hatas gettin mad...
September representin'
September monkeys
http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/group/september-monkeys
I'm also a September monkey.
Read in a Forbes' article a few years ago that Virgo seems to produce the most billionaires.
Maybe we are just more cautious.
But I still think this theory is BS!
Like I said, this hasn't anything to do with astrology. It has to do with being exposed to an external environment, and having a higher maturity than your classmates if you're the oldest of your class. The study is suggestive that there's a correlation, not causation.
Wouldn't being born in January make one the oldest in the class? Everyone in a certain grade was born in the same year. Thus those born in January are the oldest, not September. Then again, maybe HS in the US is different...
a good number of these probably only apply to American kids, the August-September one being the most apparent. American school is indeed different, where August/September is the typical cutoff for one year to the next.
Correlation, not causality.
And: selectivity bias. Unless they pool ALL (or most) of the successful people and CEOs from all countries, this is BS.
Next question?
Did the study show the exact opposite effects for the Southern Hemisphere? The seasons are reversed.
where are the august babies here? dumb kids unite
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