Chapter 5 looks at talent development and human excellence in a broader social-historical conditions and changes. The flourishing of particular forms of excellence in a given historical period or culture is always distinct, due to both cultural values and priorities as well as societal changes in social structure, leisure, and conditions of education. If human excellence reflects high-level self-organized individuality, then sociocultural contexts matter; ECT supports the notion of personal agency in changing the world and changing history, not by traits and genes, notwithstanding their meaningful role, but by cultural evolution that leverages characteristic and maximal adaptation with its niche construction and infrastructure-building to achieve the prosperity and vitality of its members. However, sociocultural conditions (including available technology) also significantly constrain individual strivings as well as how far individuals can go. The Needham Puzzle on the birth of modern science (why it occurred in the West, not China) is discussed, and a comparison is made of Da Vinci and Wang Yangming to demonstrate that any creative act is a sociocultural act, which can change history, yet is constrained by one’s times.