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Consider these paragraphs: "One candidate in Ms Rivera’s sample passed the interview by adopting the persona of a successful consultant that he knew at that fi

by qiqing 11y ago

Consider these paragraphs: "One candidate in Ms Rivera’s sample passed the interview by adopting the persona of a successful consultant that he knew at that firm. Even if you do not go that far, you must at all costs avoid appearing nerdy or eccentric: there are plenty of jobs with tech companies for those types. The old-fashioned belief still prevails that playing team sports, especially posh ones like rowing, makes for a rounded character.... This overwhelming emphasis on style rather than substance may seem an odd way to select members of the 1%. But those at the top of the consulting, investment-banking and legal professions know that the most prized possession in uncertain times is not brainpower, but self-confidence. For all the talk of the world becoming dominated by a 'cognitive elite', in reality it appears it is nothing more than a 'confidence elite'." It would seem that someone with a past in one of these firms who actually had a good 'fit' there would make a poor fit for most tech startups. [1] So then I back look at this sentence, "The top ranks of governments and central banks are sprinkled with Goldman Sachs veterans. Technology firms, though they are catching up fast, have nothing like the same grip on the global elite." Our tide is rising, and they can wait in their confident complacence. They'll never see it coming. 1. http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html

dropit_sphere 11y ago
I'm not certain I agree. Yes, the hacker ethos will easily create more wealth than this posturing dreck. But only if all that productivity is directed towards the right problems. And often those problems are not profitable-looking ones---which means you probably won't be working on them as an employee. As an academic, or independent, perhaps, but hopping onto craigslist doesn't net a whole lot of world-changing opportunities. And it's in those very opportunities that there's enough froth to upset the established order. Saying no to money requires...confidence. So keep working, keep learning.
cgio 11y ago
Our tide is rising even within these firms. If you look at their strategies it's now all about diversity and the power of combining different viewpoints. They are not looking for diverse stakeholder managers, they understand that the new economy is driven by people who in the past they would only meet by chance in a lab as they were inspecting a factory. And they want some of these people (potentially the least capable? I cannot judge, I am one), because it's all about client relationships, and you have to fit with the clients, not your peers. Compare that to a few years ago, when even dress code was more or less a uniform. I don't want to disappoint you, but they are not complacent and they have seen it coming since the last 10 years. These organisations are built to their core to manage shifts like that. Whether they will succeed this time is to be seen. But they have weathered such changes in the past, usually boosting their performance out of the broader change.
- qiqing 11y ago
  I think you're right. About them evolving, that is.
lordnacho 11y ago
Is it a uniquely American thing, this weird school with a caste system based on football? I went to international school, and I noticed the kids who were playing the popularity game tended to be Americans. The ones who liked to say who was in and who was out. The ones who wanted to be cool, the ones who watched all the right shows and wore all the right clothes. It was a really strong influence on the other kids, and it was particularly Americans who'd recently arrived. Since it was an international school, not everyone bought in.
- qiqing 11y ago
  I grew up in the U.S. but moved around a lot, and most schools I went to were like PG described. All except for my high school, which was predominantly immigrant (majority Russian/ex-Soviet bloc, minority Asian; parents were mostly geeks as well), which culturally felt a lot like Silicon Valley: nerdy, eccentric, and optimistic about the future. Unsurprisingly, there's non-trivial overlap because many of my friends from high school moved out here for work or to start companies.
- jkimmel 11y ago
  I'm not sure if it's uniquely American. I think the secondary school social system is based in the individualistic culture of American society at large, and may appear in other countries with a similar individual emphasis. In many cases, American children (at least in my region of the country, growing up in the late 1990's & 2000's) are told that they are exceptional at a young age by their parents/mentor figures. This article sums up the environment nicely. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wait-but-why/generation-y-unhappy_b_3930620.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wait-but-why/generation-y-unha... I think a desire to fulfill this expectation of individualized achievement can lead adolescents to pursue peer approval as an activity unto itself, the so called "trying to be cool," you may have observed.
  - smil 11y ago
    American culture is not individualistic. It's conformist to the extreme.
- 11y ago

by qiqing 11y ago

dropit_sphere 11y ago

I'm not certain I agree. Yes, the hacker ethos will easily create more wealth than this posturing dreck. But only if all that productivity is directed towards the right problems. And often those problems are not profitable-looking ones---which means you probably won't be working on them as an employee. As an academic, or independent, perhaps, but hopping onto craigslist doesn't net a whole lot of world-changing opportunities. And it's in those very opportunities that there's enough froth to upset the established order. Saying no to money requires...confidence. So keep working, keep learning.

cgio 11y ago

Our tide is rising even within these firms. If you look at their strategies it's now all about diversity and the power of combining different viewpoints. They are not looking for diverse stakeholder managers, they understand that the new economy is driven by people who in the past they would only meet by chance in a lab as they were inspecting a factory. And they want some of these people (potentially the least capable? I cannot judge, I am one), because it's all about client relationships, and you have to fit with the clients, not your peers. Compare that to a few years ago, when even dress code was more or less a uniform. I don't want to disappoint you, but they are not complacent and they have seen it coming since the last 10 years. These organisations are built to their core to manage shifts like that. Whether they will succeed this time is to be seen. But they have weathered such changes in the past, usually boosting their performance out of the broader change.

qiqing 11y ago
I think you're right. About them evolving, that is.

lordnacho 11y ago

Is it a uniquely American thing, this weird school with a caste system based on football? I went to international school, and I noticed the kids who were playing the popularity game tended to be Americans. The ones who liked to say who was in and who was out. The ones who wanted to be cool, the ones who watched all the right shows and wore all the right clothes. It was a really strong influence on the other kids, and it was particularly Americans who'd recently arrived. Since it was an international school, not everyone bought in.

qiqing 11y ago
I grew up in the U.S. but moved around a lot, and most schools I went to were like PG described. All except for my high school, which was predominantly immigrant (majority Russian/ex-Soviet bloc, minority Asian; parents were mostly geeks as well), which culturally felt a lot like Silicon Valley: nerdy, eccentric, and optimistic about the future. Unsurprisingly, there's non-trivial overlap because many of my friends from high school moved out here for work or to start companies.
jkimmel 11y ago
I'm not sure if it's uniquely American. I think the secondary school social system is based in the individualistic culture of American society at large, and may appear in other countries with a similar individual emphasis. In many cases, American children (at least in my region of the country, growing up in the late 1990's & 2000's) are told that they are exceptional at a young age by their parents/mentor figures. This article sums up the environment nicely. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wait-but-why/generation-y-unhappy_b_3930620.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wait-but-why/generation-y-unha... I think a desire to fulfill this expectation of individualized achievement can lead adolescents to pursue peer approval as an activity unto itself, the so called "trying to be cool," you may have observed.
- smil 11y ago
  American culture is not individualistic. It's conformist to the extreme.
11y ago