It's especially amusing considering that actual "merit" is usually the last thing I think of when I see people at the "tip top of success" like Ballmer. Very fe

It's especially amusing considering that actual "merit" is usually the last thing I think of when I see people at the "tip top of success" like Ballmer. Very few of these people did much more to merit their success than anybody else in the industry they're in, in terms of actually doing quality work. Most of the "above and beyond" effort they put in is related either to simply being part of the relevant 'old boys club'/coming from wealth already or else engaging in the kind of backstabbing and negative competition that MSFT's stack ranking encourages.