

In Silicon Valley start-up world, pedigree counts - elaineo
http://preview.reuters.com/2013/9/12/insight-in-silicon-valley-start-up-world-1

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tptacek
_A prestigious degree, a proven track record and personal connections to
power-brokers_

Which of these things is not like the o-thers?

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btilly
The proven track record, of course.

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kenster07
If a modern day Leonardo da Vinci materialized today, would he have a voice
despite his lack of modern pedigree?

Is this supposed to be controversial? Smart, self-aware people know that
pedigree is somewhat related to, but is not the same thing as ability. After
all, the great thinkers of history all predated the Ivy Leagues, and an
extremely small % of all students, let alone Ivy Leaguers belong to the former
group.

The problem is, people, even smart people, are too lazy to think for
themselves all the time. They either do not want to be tasked with, or are
incapable of determining the worth of other people, so they use proxies like
pedigree. It's a heuristic, and I'd go as far as to say it's embedded into
human nature, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. One thing is for sure
-- this problem is not local to Silicon Valley. It is a human problem.

This becomes a "bubble" when people become so absorbed in pedigree that they
begin to selectively ignore that which pedigree is supposed to proxy.

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namenotrequired
Earlier discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6385227](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6385227)

