4 ms·
When I was young I really believed in meritocracy. I mean I knew there were royals who didn't have to work, but I thought by and large if you put in effort peop
by lordnacho 4y ago
When I was young I really believed in meritocracy. I mean I knew there were royals who didn't have to work, but I thought by and large if you put in effort people will see it.
Then as I worked for a few years it became apparent this isn't close to being true. I ran into a huge number of people who reached the top by various forms of lying, whether it was little lies like taking credit for others' work or bigger lies like scam websites, or even bigger ones like crime. It's actually interesting how people will just tell you these things if you are even a bit friendly with them.
- hgomersall 4y agoYou definitely need to be good at lying, so on some level we have a meritocracy.
- MichaelZuo 4y agoIronically it would seem to be a very effective form of meritocracy, as liars compete to out-dupe each other.
- mistrial9 4y agoso you have been to Palo Alto !
- marcinzm 4y agoI agree but this brings up to me a broader question of what is a meritocracy. It is usually defined around wealth or social class. If someone lacking both cheats their way to the top through their own efforts and talent then to me that counts as a meritocracy.
- jasonwatkinspdx 4y agoI went through a similar shift, and is softened a lot of my more libertarian views when younger. I realized that the circumstances of your birth have such a huge impact on your life that it's really like there's two entirely different games being played. Or another way to look at it is the more fortunate the circumstances of your birth, the more times you can fail before you succeed. I also realized how much institutional quality matters for the structure of society as a whole on a generational scale.