So, slight devils advocate, but there are some economics at play as well. If someone presents themselves as having a lot of options, and they've chosen the fiel

So, slight devils advocate, but there are some economics at play as well. If someone presents themselves as having a lot of options, and they've chosen the field you are interviewing them for, they're probably pretty good at it - because to have options, they must be. It signals a bargaining position. The other piece is that few people understand what elite competition really is. You don't just act a certain way or have certain taste, collect some symbols, and then you win. In olympic sports, the competitors are at super human levels to qualify, and yet the margins of victory and loss between them are tiny. Milliseconds, milimeters, grams. That difference of performance in the moment is the effect of a training trajectory of months and years that culminates in what is essentially a psychological advantage in the moment of performance. That's pretty close to what class is. It's the effect of a long trajectory. People who train don't take big risks, they develop technique so they don't lose a season to an injury. Similarly, the advantage of class means you never have to bet what you couldn't afford to lose, which makes you a safer bet in a corporate interview situation. It doesn't sound very equitable, but if you can't easily fake it, it may actually be an honest signal.