It has to be one of the oldest debates with social science predating the idea there is but the hideous social forces explain human outcomes. Its all about biography. What i thought is these are two further apart view points. The problem is that both arguments make sense. The social scientists or the people following the tradition of, you know, not just marx, but most social scientists say, look, theres three reasons why leaders dont matter that much, that the leader of my organization faces external constraints. If youre the ceo of company, you have competitors. You cant set prices at whatever you want. Theres internal constraints, tradition, culture, everything inside a country, company, military unit. You cant do whatever you want. Most importantly, leaders are not chosen randomly so most leaders of powerful organizations, organizations that we care about, organizations that have the ability to reshape history, they are not picked out of a hat, but picked because that organization is