Academic Credentials or the Nothe the Studying?

The author of a new book on foreign policy. The title is public choice theory and the illusion of grand strategy. In hind sight, have your academic credentials done anything at all for his success? Or could you have just fasded through all that, been an autodie and been exactly where you are to day? So it's an iti. I mean, learning statistics was very important. But my sort of success, i think, depends on getting attention, people thinking i'm smart.