Prestige is also "legible" in the sense introduced by "Seeing Like a State". It's valuable in eg. socially, if someone sees Harvard/Goldman, they can instantly

Prestige is also "legible" in the sense introduced by "Seeing Like a State". It's valuable in eg. socially, if someone sees Harvard/Goldman, they can instantly bucket you in a particular social class, even if they're in a wildly different field and couldn't assess your actual merit. Whether you want to be perceived as a member of that particular social class is a mixed bag which I wont waste space on here, as if you're interested in reading more about it, I'd direct you to literally any issue of The New Yorker.