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Paul, how much of the conclusion did you decide on before starting the essay? It felt more like an attempt to convince us, rather than a revelation to yourself

Paul, how much of the conclusion did you decide on before starting the essay? It felt more like an attempt to convince us, rather than a revelation to yourself. Not that that's bad, but you didn't seem excited. What were your diffs?

pg 18y ago
Actually there were a lot of surprises. That credentials are seals between generations; the distinction between direct and indirect methods of helping your kids; that sealing off direct methods promotes indirect ones; the emptiness of the explanation schools give of legacy admissions (which now seems to me as damning evidence as the practice itself); the precise connection between credentials, measurement, and organization size; the fact that falsely impressing colleagues in a small organization wouldn't have a lasting effect, because the organization wouldn't last; the reason the word yuppie arose, and the connection between startup founders and yuppies; that the spread of measurement would bring credential granters into line as well; and that the left, because their attachment to equality (of result, not opportunity) makes them dislike markets, have to fall back on a broken method of preventing transmission of power between generations. I think the reason I didn't sound excited was the way this got written. I started it this summer, didn't work on it for months, and then started again in November. I rewrote it so many times that all that's left of the first version is the beginning, up to "Chinese example," and one paragraph in the middle that used to be in the beginning.
- jackchristopher 18y ago
  I agreed with the point of the piece beforehand. And there was plenty of newness in it. I wanted to gauge how it was written. And the analysis is helpful. A lecturely, authoritative voice seems inevitable as you move away from the excitement phase. But excitement may be more convincing. And that's one advantage that blogs have over essays, that I hadn't considered. Being published so much quicker, it's easier to retain excitement. But I'm a bigger fan of essays. The medium still has steam left, even if you include it's other anachronisms.

pg 18y ago

Actually there were a lot of surprises. That credentials are seals between generations; the distinction between direct and indirect methods of helping your kids; that sealing off direct methods promotes indirect ones; the emptiness of the explanation schools give of legacy admissions (which now seems to me as damning evidence as the practice itself); the precise connection between credentials, measurement, and organization size; the fact that falsely impressing colleagues in a small organization wouldn't have a lasting effect, because the organization wouldn't last; the reason the word yuppie arose, and the connection between startup founders and yuppies; that the spread of measurement would bring credential granters into line as well; and that the left, because their attachment to equality (of result, not opportunity) makes them dislike markets, have to fall back on a broken method of preventing transmission of power between generations. I think the reason I didn't sound excited was the way this got written. I started it this summer, didn't work on it for months, and then started again in November. I rewrote it so many times that all that's left of the first version is the beginning, up to "Chinese example," and one paragraph in the middle that used to be in the beginning.

jackchristopher 18y ago
I agreed with the point of the piece beforehand. And there was plenty of newness in it. I wanted to gauge how it was written. And the analysis is helpful. A lecturely, authoritative voice seems inevitable as you move away from the excitement phase. But excitement may be more convincing. And that's one advantage that blogs have over essays, that I hadn't considered. Being published so much quicker, it's easier to retain excitement. But I'm a bigger fan of essays. The medium still has steam left, even if you include it's other anachronisms.