Comments on: Meritocracy

By: Michele Vitale

Michele Vitale — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 12:29:54 +0000

Ah! and I believe that you COULD found a new Google, if you wanted!
;-)

By: Michele Vitale

Michele Vitale — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 12:28:27 +0000

Simone, very nice post indeed. It makes you think.
But difficult to understand for those who had to remain in Italy for that ‘something else’.
Because here in Italy when you get your degree with full marks, you get your MBA, you’re brilliant, you’re are a hardworker etc. etc. you must consider yourself lucky when such things are seen as components of your “merit”, rather than as a “side dish” of your being son (or friend) of a powerful Mr Somebody.
But you already know it, I assume.

By: Vincenzo

Vincenzo — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 09:28:46 +0000

Hi Simone
after quite a long you wrote this post I found this interesting article on NYT which actually support your thesis in a different way:
http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/19/the-trouble-with-meritocracy/

I like when the author says:

It’s not enough to simply take the smartest kids and make them smarter. What’s just as important is teaching these young people to seek out strangers, to resist the tug of self-similarity and homogenization.

Enjoy
:)

By: Des Walsh

Des Walsh — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:49:15 +0000

Fascinating discussion.

I spent a long time in the public service and saw the value and the limitations of meritocracy: some awful dunderheads rose inexorably through the system while their smarter peers got impatient and went where they could achieve something and not lose their souls.

I used to think nepotism was a Bad Thing. Then once I mentioned to a colleague who owned an advertising agency that I had a niece who was looking for a job. Tell her to get in touch, he said. Then he said, smiling and not lowering his voice even though (because?) we were in a public place and both well known there “I *believe* in nepotism. Who wants to work with people they don’t know?”. There is a sub-thread there: if he hired her and it did not work out, I would – as the Chinese say – lose face, so my niece would have extra motivation to do well, which would be good for his business etc etc.

May I suggest there is a third thing, somewhere between meritocracy and nepotism/cronyism – which if I had to I might call something like reputocracy?

That’s about what goes on all over the world, hiring someone or opening a business discussion with someone because someone you know says “the man/woman you need to meet is…”

It’s a lot about what LinkedIn provides. Reputation. Simone thinks this woman is the right person to make my team work, and I trust Simone’s judgement and know he has great experience so I’d be mad not to interview her.

By: Diego DID

Diego DID — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 09:29:03 +0000

Hi Simone,

it is a long time without getting in touch with news, I promise to write you further.

About your post, we could talk about “relative meritocracy”: I think both, Sergey and you, have taken profits by meritocracy, just on different scale range. More, it is easy and comforting take a Gates or a Brin as touchstone: what about the young and inspired hardworking burkinabé and his achievements? I think it would complain as you, rightly, about the number of computers… but not only.

Finally, and in spite of this, I largely agree with you. But another Assisi citizen had his personal Mr Brin, long time before you; and his Mr. Brin said that it is not useful to search power, richness and treasure on this Earth. So, why would you like to find meritocracy? It si not necessary to believe to this “other” Mr. Brin, but it would be useful to integrate this concept in the reflection.

By: Emanuele Fossati

Emanuele Fossati — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 09:17:43 +0000

Dear Simone,
you recognise that the word “merit” is quite hard to define precisely.
One can say that also creating a network of human connections, that eventually leads to some job position, is “merit”.
In my experience (that is mostly in big enterprises and institutions), hard working and competence is just ONE among the factors: I have personally seen many competent and hardworking people creating more damage and problems than value.
However, I fully agree when you say that the level we reach in the world depends mostly on where we start. But I have a good news for you: happyness doesn’t generally depend on the absolute level we reach, but on the difference between where we start and where we arrive.
Nobody can deny that we (you and me) are among the most successfull Italians – lifestyle, happyness and mostly future perspectives.
A final consideration: you, with your work and intelligence, are increasing the starting level of your future children. You cited mr. Brin: he could start in a great environment probably because his relatives made good choices in the past.

See you soon, my good friend

By: Mirko Bonadei

Mirko Bonadei — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 06:12:14 +0000

Great post Simone… It is a very good question, and sometimes I wonder about it. But I’m sure that you have done more than some other people that started in a better position then your. So that, in a job interview, you wouldn’t beat Sergey, but you can win the most of them because you deserve it.
By the way, it is an X Factor… Destiny, lucky, creating value… It doesn’t matter but in my opinion, even if you have a better starting position you have to work hard to reach the goal, probably the goal will be bigger than the goal of a guy that started from another position, but you have to work hard.

By: Carlo Pecchia

Carlo Pecchia — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 13:54:09 +0000

Great post! Thanks for sharing your thoughts… Personally I lived (more or less) same experiences within University environment, so I can’t agree more with you.

By: Marco

Marco — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 13:11:52 +0000

It is difficult to define what merit itself is. It is a word with little information content. It conveys a vague idea, it could be a myth. Merit is not something you own, it is something you receive. I mostly agree with you, but I believe that starting at the same level is not enough to realize a true meritocracy. Merit is a relationship between you and a (often very small) community. The community acknowledges you are working hard. “Welldone” is not an intrinsic property of jobs. People outside the community acknowledge your merits because the community did. It is a sort of vicious circle. I do not want to say life is unfair and successful people do not deserve their merits. Bye

By: Maurizio Prando

Maurizio Prando — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 11:56:54 +0000

That something else is best known such as “Luck” or “Destiny”.