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It's not my reasoning, it's my attempt to repeat the reasoning I've heard from highly intelligent people who really don't think individual differences in compet
by hirundo 6y ago
It's not my reasoning, it's my attempt to repeat the reasoning I've heard from highly intelligent people who really don't think individual differences in competence matter much -- even when their own clearly does. I think they do matter, a lot.
One of the most competent people I've ever known is one of them. He told me that Elon Musk is somewhat intelligent, but his success is due to luck and underhandedness, and he could be easily replaced by another somewhat intelligent and similarly underhanded person. He seemed sincere in believing that merit wasn't much of a thing and meritocracy is a racist trope. I got roundly mocked on twitter for arguing that merit is real. I'd like to understand that point of view better, because I'm at a loss too.
- omginternets 6y agoAh i see! Makes much more sense now :)
- cycloptic 6y agoPeople are probably getting angry at you because you are explicitly invoking a politicized definition of the word merit which basically boils down to "best at maintaining the political status quo." In other contexts the definition is different. (For example Elon Musk's business merits seem to be his track record of making a lot of money, or at least that's what they are on twitter anyway) If you want other examples of people who are pissed off at the concept of merit for other reasons, talk to some PhDs (or other holders of high academic merit) that are struggling to find work.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- crazyjncsu 6y agoWhen did he engage in "explicitly invoking a politicized definition of the word merit"? I'm very new to the understanding that the word "merit" is now politicized, and I find it very unfortunate. For the sake of humanity, I would hope that at least the _definition_ of "merit" could be commonly accepted..
- cycloptic 6y agoI didn't see any of the tweets so I can't say for sure, that's just my read on the situation judging by the reactions. That's why I said "probably." If you find a definition of merit that everyone can agree on, please let us know, because that would be news to me. In my experience in the US at least, most people seem to object to there being a central organization that decides who has merit and who doesn't.
- Grustaf 6y agoIntelligence and merit are not the same thing. Elon Musk, Steve Jobs etc did not succeed because they are extremely intelligent. Almost all successful people are somewhat intelligent coupled with a lot of luck/street-smart/hard work/underhandedness etc. These are what constitute "merit" in a businessman. So your friend is partly right. But certainly you couldn't just replace Musk with someone of the same intelligence, that is not what determines success at that level.