Posted on 06/01/2021 7:40:37 AM PDT by ProgressingAmerica
Meritocracy has become a leading social ideal. Politicians across the ideological spectrum continually return to the theme that the rewards of life—money, power, jobs, university admission—should be distributed according to skill and effort. The most common metaphor is the ‘even playing field’ upon which players can rise to the position that fits their merit. Conceptually and morally, meritocracy is presented as the opposite of systems such as hereditary aristocracy, in which one’s social position is determined by the lottery of birth. Under meritocracy, wealth and advantage are merit’s rightful compensation, not the fortuitous windfall of external events.
Most people don’t just think the world should be run meritocratically, they think it is meritocratic. In the UK, 84 per cent of respondents to the 2009 British Social Attitudes survey stated that hard work is either ‘essential’ or ‘very important’ when it comes to getting ahead, and in 2016 the Brookings Institute found that 69 per cent of Americans believe that people are rewarded for intelligence and skill. Respondents in both countries believe that external factors, such as luck and coming from a wealthy family, are much less important. While these ideas are most pronounced in these two countries, they are popular across the globe.
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.
Effectively producing a kakistocracy.
Work flows to the competent.
Never exhibit great competency doing work you don’t like to do.
After being on the “management track” for several years and only seeing more non-doers and minorities promoted, I am looking elsewhere.
“...GUI to market after being shown one at Apple,...foolish of Steve Jobs to have shown it to Gates ...Gates has the business ethics of a hyena ...”
Actually so did Jobs, he stole the GUI from PARC XEROX !
Parents want to send their kids to "elite" universities, because of the perception that graduates of these places do very well.
The reality is that they do very well because the elite colleges are (or were) very selective, only admitting the smartest and hardest-working.
An elite university that stops admitting the smartest, most driven applicant, will descend into mediocrity.
I have faced this myself also. You are not supposed to make yourself look good, you are are supposed to make them look good.
And not only management... But from fellow employees if you come in and make them look bad with your work ethics and productivity. Because it forces them to do the same and most just want to do only the bare minimum to keep the position.
What the Airforce calls fly and fix, get a plane out and them make it work, Gates helped to introduce to programming as well, spending money others had been on better code on more advertising.
Idiocracy.................
Strange that’s even there. Leftists are notoriously uncharitable.
There is a Peter Principle workaround.
All you have to do is know where your level of incompetence is and diligently work to avoid promotion to that level.
Over the decades I’ve known scores of excellent engineers who became crappy managers.
I’ve studiously avoided management...
i guess that’s how cliff got his job...
At my company they promote the best so that the best spend all their time managing schedules and budgets which are ever-expanding due to having to fix all the mistakes made by the incompetents remaining at the bottom of the food chain.
For example, starting at Princeton, we need to abolish tenure, even before we get started on Guaranteed Basic Income and Reparations.
That has been the way of the world since time began.
People climb the ladder then cut off the rungs beneath them.
I get it. Some of my mentorees were promoted above me. I took it as a compliment. However, I was also “frozen out” very quickly for two reasons.
1. They had no one to replace me with
2. I was a threat. The two I trained who made it up were competent and hard working. That is a direct threat to those who are not.
Promotions are as much about the social aspect as the merit. Something I wish I was taught early on.
Now, it is about what color of skin you have and where you pee. Which is a nice way of protecting those on the top from being challenged.
Whoop dee do.
The solution?
Why Eureka....the solution is SOCIALISM.
Everybody gets the same.( Bunghole the Merit.)
This is Utopian in the extreme.
Merit is whaty oit is all about, wheter ganed via work or luck.
Thats the way karma ( the law of causation and dependent origination) works.
No Socialism or body politic can change the role of merit.Its like the law of gravity. Unavoidable.
In a few generations, maybe.
When I worked for Koch, there was a clear anti Ivy directive.
That Harvard MBA will cost more and do less than the guy from Wichita.
Same in engineering.
However, they do come with connections. Sometimes that is what is being bought.
It is easy for them. Liberal = good. Everything else bad. Nothing else need be considered.
You spend a freakin’ fortune on tuition and books only to have them theach you failure, excuses and mediocracy, instead of possibilities and potentials realized.
Find a better place to feed your mind and your spirit real food, instead of that over-priced, soul cancer inducing, mental junk food they’re dishing out.
As a man thinks, so he goes.
For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.
Belief becomes reality, so think better thoughts.
An AA degree from a community college is a far better practical investment than the overpriced 4-year socialist mind meld you’d finance with student loans from a university.
Luck: Recognizing and seizing oportunities as they arise, not wallowing in self pity.
"It's not who you know but who you blow"
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