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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   4450 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026

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Even if the child is only doing it because the parents want that resume padding, it is still good for the children, and the future adults those children grow up to be.

Nah. If you've met any of the people who used to do this stuff as kids, they just minimax it to get maximal reward for minimal effort, use their parents' volunteering as leverage to advance within the club, then become extruded homogenized IC drone product at FAANG.

Yah. Strivers who actually minmax have to know what to minmax, which is still preferable to would-be minmaxers who don't know how or what to minmax. Even if you cannot get someone to understand or appreciate why a habit is good, it is still better for them to develop the habit than to not. There is never going to be a shortage of ambitious / selfish / lazy people wanting good jobs; it is still better if their average baseline competance is higher than lower, if only so that don't get in the way of other people's good work.

And this holds true even for the insufferable strivers. For the non-insufferable sorts, and even the non-strivers, developing good habits and skill sets is even more valuable. It would be an incompetent education policy that disregards the people who can be taught because there are poor actors who won't internalize the lessons. The world, and a profession, doesn't get better the more less-capable people it inducts.

Strivers who actually minmax have to know what to minmax, which is still preferable to would-be minmaxers who don't know how or what to minmax.

Rotely following Honorable Mother and Father's directions on minmaxing extracurriculars to get into Harvard may be less pedagogically useful than you believe.

Your mistake is confusing the result of Goodharting metrics to within an inch of their lives with actual development of skill and habits. Developing habits is a total waste of time when you can get good results by working the system and have more time left over to study for Bio Olympiad.

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