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They didn't implemented meritocracy then. They just compared the value of papers.

Max could have lost to someone who has spent all their life as a social activist and has degree in humanism, womyns studies and various other bullshit with friends at Google. That's the point of what meritocracy is trying got avoid.

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They didn't compare papers at all, they compared proficiency at a well-defined and concrete task with an objective standard, and he was worse than a recent CS grad. But who decides a task is or is not a measure of merit?

And really, who decides a career social activist with good soft skills who can save the company 50 million in lawsuits and bad press has less merit than the engineer who may work for years on a project that ultimately gets canceled?

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