4 ms·
Proponents of "meritocracy" usually mean "no false positives": let us not have bad engineers or politicians; let cream rise to the top rather than keep messing
by prionassembly 5y ago
Proponents of "meritocracy" usually mean "no false positives": let us not have bad engineers or politicians; let cream rise to the top rather than keep messing with the mixture.
Detractors of "meritocracy" usually mean "no false negatives": all the cream rises to the top, if you're good you'll win always.
The first version is a desideratum; it's a desired end-goal, not a warranty. The second is a(n usually true under the second definition) empirical claim that meritocracy is impossible.
- PaulHoule 5y agoThe word meritocracy was defined in a work of fiction that used it ironically. People are so literal minded they dropped the irony. That is, people in power are so desperate to believe that they deserve every microgram they have that they grab to ideas like that. In the case of the article there are questions like: "what do the members of the team believe about the competence about the other members of the team?" and "how competent are the members of the team really?" and that is in the context of an industry where it is commonly believed that "anybody who uses Microsoft SQL Server is a buffoon" or "anybody who uses MySQL is a buffoon" together with many similar beliefs.