Meritocracy is a nice goal, but it's certainly not Silicon Valley (or any other place of which I know). The universe has no even playing fields, and it's hard

Meritocracy is a nice goal, but it's certainly not Silicon Valley (or any other place of which I know). The universe has no even playing fields, and it's hard to win friends by contradicting that. Does hard work matter? Of course. Does it determine success? Not as much as it would under a meritocracy.