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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 18, 2023

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I believe tech companies are meritocratic in the hiring process, at least for the tech positions. Those interviews are regarded as notoriously hard, assuming you even pass the screening.

This isn't even remotely true. In fact I'd wager tech is one of the least meritocratic places out there, if by that you simply mean your talent and results correlate with success in the company.

Because it's only a belief. There is no consequence for being wrong, nor does it require any effort beyond thinking it. So there is only upside for holding socially acceptable beliefs and zero personal downside in the short-term for holding wrong ones, even of society is made worse in the long-run.

Most of us don't have good arguments for 'anything' we believe. We don't work out a logical syllogism and reason our way to actions through Socratic dialogue on a daily basis. We simply approach a situation with a set of beliefs about things. I don't even think it's true that most people learn from their experience.

i guess the wrongness of my first statement proves the second

This isn't even remotely true. In fact I'd wager tech is one of the least meritocratic places out there

Why do you think that?

I'm not the one you asked but I'll take 'direct observation' for 500 Alex.

Maybe things were different 20 - 30 years ago, but these days all I see and hear coming out of Silicon Valley is grifters and venture capitalists looking to grab a slice of the Next-Big-Thing™ rather than build a business. What sparks of brilliance and merit that do exist are often isolated and by no means representative of the wider class.

Because in much of tech, development and maintenance is looked at as a cost center, not a profit center. Now in fairness to you, you did only say "tech," you didn't say something like cyber security more specifically. Nevertheless I've found in my own experience that it generalizes. But because of that, the business incentive structure for a lot of tech focused jobs punishes skilled developers and instead caters to being the first to market, with mediocre products that hit the shelves before they're ready.

If you want some basic insight in how aspects of the tech world view this, I'd suggest watching this insightful 10 minute clip. I'd wager cybercrime is more meritocratic than almost anything else you find in tech.

Why do you think it’s worse than in other industries though? I don’t think anyone was comparing tech to cybercrime when you claimed it was one of the least meritocratic places.

Is it less meritocratic than law firms? Newspapers? Hospitals? Academia?

My personal experience has genuinely been that the best people on people on my team tend to have the highest level (software engineer at Google). I would loathe to assume that my experience generalizes across the company (let alone the whole industry), but the mere fact that tech has interviews that are at least sensible proxies for ability automatically puts it way ahead of the curve compared to most industries.

Why do you think it’s worse than in other industries though? I don’t think anyone was comparing tech to cybercrime when you claimed it was one of the least meritocratic places.

I think you may have misread my previous comment... The original statement was simply about tech, so that's the context I was replying to.

My point about cybercrime is that if somebody wants to segment and break down tech into it's various sectors, I think you'll be hard pressed find a subsection of it that's more meritocratic than the criminal element. Ransomware gangs don't care one bit about arbitrary qualifications or making you jump through hoops. If the axis of a meritocracy are that people are rewarded in proportion to their value, then that's certainly true. Cyber criminals earn their just desserts. All they care about is your talent, performance and reputation as a black hat. If you can deliver, you go to the front of the line. All other considerations are secondary.

When you deviate away from tech and look at the catalog of other industries, you could argue that in other industries a meritocracy is less the exception and more the rule. I could be wrong, but all I can draw from are my own experiences and observations. Perhaps someone else can offer up a different view.

My personal experience has genuinely been that the best people on people on my team tend to have the highest level (software engineer at Google). I would loathe to assume that my experience generalizes across the company (let alone the whole industry), but the mere fact that tech has interviews that are at least sensible proxies for ability automatically puts it way ahead of the curve compared to most industries.

I think interviews are a lousy barometer for evaluating merit, personally. And that's a rule I apply across the board. I don't think they're entirely useless per se, but I'm guarded about over relying on their utility.