

What's Wrong with Meritocracy - Torn
http://the-diplomat.com/china-power/2011/02/24/what%E2%80%99s-wrong-with-meritocracy/

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gte910h
I wish HN had a "Move it to reddit" button.

~~~
dexen
I wish HN had a ``show only informative replies'' button, if you'll excuse
this cheap shot at you.

Perhaps I don't understand and/or notice some of the ways the article fails. I
lurk here to learn something new, so I wish fellow HNers would explain the
reasoning behind their critique.

But if you were referring to the submission title only, that's another
story...

~~~
gte910h
Feels highly political, especially with the original title.

We're not trying to get into Harvard, so not particularly relevant.

While you may be a lurker here, and so may not have it, many of us have a
"flag" button. This will delete the article from the site if a pretty small
number of us click it.

 _Therefore, I wish, in addition to this button, I also had a button that said
"has some value, just get it out of the curated HN space, and transfers it to
reddit"._

So if it's interesting to hackers, it's via politics (which HN tends to be
flag happy about), and about a stage in life where pretty much everyone here
is past (college admissions), to an institution which isn't really that common
for the startupy type of person to strive for (usually preferring Stanford or
MIT).

I do think it's interesting, I just would prefer to see it on a site where the
politics can be discussed without the stink of political opinion interfering
with the startup community.

I view sticking stuff like this on HN is akin to having heated political
discussions before interviewing for a job or partnership: a universally bad
idea.

I wasn't being glib. It _is_ an interesting article, just not one I want to
see change my opinion of people I discuss technical things with all the time.
People tend to be more blind to assumption about politics than many other
topics, so it's a good way to make yourself think less of people.

Things close to this I would think on topic for HN:

A blog post going into how the hacker community isn't like this.

The ways that scions of tech are different than other parents when the second
generation comes around.

Etc.

~~~
beoba
The article isn't really _about_ university admissions at all, they're merely
provided as one cause of an environment which also has its parallels in
startup life.

Arbitrary illustrative excerpt:

 _Whether American or Chinese, individuals who focus too much on
‘achievement,’ and who believe the illusion that they’ve achieved everything
simply through their own honest hard work, often think very little of everyone
else as a result._

~~~
gte910h
Yes, the article repeats examples of the fundamental attribution error then
draws some conclusions about it. However, the subject matter is the founders
of the testing moment, and their failure to achieve their goals.

Again, the only _interesting_ part of the article is highly political which is
basically stating "be nice to the proles before they eat you". Aka, it belongs
on reddit, not here.

If it makes you guys lay off, I _agree_ with the blog post, I just don't think
it belongs HERE.

------
gyardley
Please don't editorialize in the submission title.

~~~
Torn
Changed, thanks.

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beoba
A very good article, though I wish the author weren't so enamored with David
Brooks clichés.

