Posted on 03/17/2019 4:37:22 AM PDT by vannrox
Try going in and telling the boss that he’s the reason why the organization is failing.
“But what the author doesn’t seem to realize that it is still better than every other system yet devised by Man.”
The author thinks that success should be determined by pulling numbers out of a hat.
The only field that I am really intimately knowledgeable about is Neurosurgery which one might consider to be a strong meritocracy. Not true. There is a definite “club” and if you are in it you can get away with things mere mortals can’t and if you ain’t in the club you won’t catch a break. So nothing about the current scandal surprises me a bit. I have seen faculty at major institutions get away with “dating” teenagers for decades. Check on just about any renowned female neurosurgeon and I can tell you how she got there.
I’ve seen lots of organizations where the boss complains that he’s surrounded by a bunch of “Yes men”.
He doesn’t want to admit that they are just imitating him.
Yes, there are IT people far smarter than Bill Gates and no, they didn’t become gazillionaires. That’s because intelligence alone is not the predictor of success (at least if one defines success as wealth).
Bill Gates made billions by also having the ability to make his vision a reality, through a combination of good people skills, perseverance, risk-taking, lying, and stealing other folks’ ideas. Anyone with THAT skill set is more likely to strike it rich than someone who is just smart.
Look at Steve Jobs too. Cutthroat SOB but driven with a passion that consumed him. Edison. Henry Ford. Even Joe Kennedy. They were more than smart; they were shrewd.
The private sector still has some degree of meritocracy; it is just clouded by affirmative-action set-aside fillers passing time while collecting paychecks. When the going gets tough, who gets laid off first? Not the working people, but the AA placeholders. I’m paid less than some tokens around me, but enjoy much more job security; their presence simply allows me to work less hours than I did previously.
The longest running and most stable government ever existed on earth was a meritocracy, with various modifications. Confusionism at its base is a meritocracy
https://theconversation.com/our-democracy-can-learn-from-chinas-meritocracy-51471
The ultimate alternative to meritocracy is patriarchy. It is far worse. Go to the semi-rural areas of China where they built factories and try to get one built. There are a whole line of hands to pad and butts to kiss.... to bring business to them.
And while we are on it, consider the ultimate meritocracy: sports. Nothing ruins a high school program (any sport) faster than a booster program with big $. Because, at some point, the ones donating the most money get the loudest that their kid isn’t playing enough and that it’s the coaches fault.
And, since he believe in social justice, all-outcomes-must-be-forced-to-be-equal (because “I” believe somebody else’s success is due to “luck” and not “work”, “skill” or “effort and practice and training and patience and knowledge”) ... well, obviously “he” is right.
Although widely held, the belief that merit rather than luck determines success or failure in the world is demonstrably false. This is not least because merit itself is, in large part, the result of luck. Talent and the capacity for determined effort, sometimes called “grit,” depend a great deal on one’s genetic endowments and upbringing.
“They found that, in companies that explicitly held meritocracy as a core value, managers assigned greater rewards to male employees over female employees with identical performance evaluations.”
So both male AND female managers gave the nod to men in their organizations?
It sounds like they knew the men were effectively undervalued, there.
True meritocracy only exists in high level sports these days. Every other field is polluted by nepotism, bribery, affirmative action, etc. I have spent a lifetime watching nepotism and affirmative action make nitwits think they’re geniuses.
OMG! Thanks for the laugh. I would propose “Confusionism” is what we are suffering with today.
Ok, so I can’t spell...
Confucianism
Is America great because of luck? The levelers think so. They think it’s the luck of geography, and that we stole the land from more deserving noble savages. It has nothing to do with culture, hard work, audacity, courage. They really believe things are going to stay the same after filling the country with people from shxx hole countries that don’t share our values and don’t want to.
While there are legitimate members of that club, to say EVERYONE who has ever done anything with themselves only made it because they were lucky, is...Leftist Stupidity.
It is the epitome of Leftism.
Leftists hate "Meritocracy". They hate it. Because that means people are unequal.
And that is at the root of why many STUPID leftists don't believe in Equality of Opportunity, they believe in Equality of Outcome. (I say STUPID, because the hard core Leftists out there don't believe in something as infantile as Equality of Outcome. They just believe in amassing of power so they can wield it on others and get rich in the process.)
Conservatives simply understand at a basic level that people ARE unequal. This is a statement of FACT.
I may consider myself competent and successful, but I understand with no reservation that there are people out there of all colors, races, and sexes who are far superior to me...and I don't hate or resent it. But at the same time, there are people of all stripes who are much inferior to me in many ways, and I don't look down on them, because we are all points on a capability spectrum.
Conservatives believe in Equality of Opportunity (which is what this country offers) because Equality of Outcome is a Leftist pipe dream that only manages to drag talented people to the BOTTOM rung of achievement, not elevate people at the bottom to the top.
In the United States, many people are born into upper stratifications of wealth and power (which happens anywhere there is wealth and power) but the thing that makes our country unique is that even today, anyone born into the lower stratifications with no wealth or power can rise and enter the higher stratifications and become part of it.
Dinesh D'Souza's excellent book "What's So Great About America" explains this in an uplifting and positive way. Even with Leftism running rampant, we are still the least class-conscious country in the world. As he states, it isn't impossible for the head of a multibillion dollar corporation to be having dinner at a swanky restaurant, and see his secretary sitting at the next table having dinner. We take it for granted, but it isn 't true everywhere.
This is my formula:
SUCCESS = HARD WORK + SKILL + OPPORTUNITY + OPPORTUNITY GRASPED + LUCK
Anyone can be successful in a financial/power/self-realization sphere if any single one of these elements is enhanced to a large enough degree. And when more than one is brought into play, the odds of being successful, however you define success, only gets better.
Any single element is good.
Take any two of them, and you can see people succeeding.
Any three of them? You are cooking with gas.
And some people get four or all five. And none are a surefire formula for success. You can have four out of the five, but if you have an opportunity not grasped, or no luck, those can often override the others factors. (Adversity, illness, disaster, etc)
This is a great video by the famous Mike Rowe:
"Don't Follow Your Passion".
Although it is named in a way that made me wrinkle my brow in disapproval, it makes complete sense to me. It plays into a segment of this formula I outlined, because it touches on all of these factors of success, hard work, skill, opportunity, opportunity grasped, and luck.
Bottom line, following your passion may not bring you success, but often following opportunities (having access to opportunities, and also grasping those opportunities, which aren't the same thing) can bring its own passion, and that often will bring success. Great video, pass it along!
Sounds like more of the “you didn’t build that “ mentality. More rationalization for theft of property, including intellectual property, for the “common good “. Selfishness and the potential for prosperity is what motivates innovation and performance. Competition has a long term benefit regardless of the fact that it creates winners and losers. And it’s totally natural.
“...writes about political theory, psychology, and other lifestyle-related topics. “
Why read further?
Actually, just as a broken clock, the clown is occasionally right.
Could one imagine Dorkbama the Muslim eunuch quota boy actually getting anywhere on talent and merit?
Imagine if the author had done something useful in the time that it took him to write down all of those negative waves. He might have had better 'luck' in becoming a productive, happy member of society.
“In large part, it isn’t what you can accomplish on your own, but how well you are networked into the powers that be.”
I hope you passed this on to your children. Do not work hard to accomplish anything, just lick the asses of the powerful and well connected. A true recipe for success.
Truth is, whether to “follow your passion” or not has a lot to do with the specific circumstances.
If you have talent and drive and opportunity that matches with the area of your passion means that following that makes more sense.
If you are starting from nothing or behind the starting line and have few supporting external resources plus limited talent, “following your passion” probably mostly makes sense if your passion is to be a pipe fitter or nurse or whatever that is safer and more practical.
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