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Comment by monksy | Hacker News Reader

I considered her opinion on tech to be invalid when she claimed that tech isn't merit based. All of the people I've met and worked with have taken lots of effort and [informal & formal] education to get where they are today.

Then I saw the last bit of it: "[...] I will miss terribly, like writing about poop and that time my editor tried to get me to go on a date with a sex robot and What Will Elon Musk Think of Next and that one month where John McAfee went completely insane; "

That rather explains her position. She doesn't get into the low lying details of tech.

The minor irritants I can relate with her and agree with her on.

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> I considered her opinion on tech to be invalid when she claimed that tech isn't merit based.

She links to a research based critique of the meritocracy narrative right in the article, right in the point on meritocracy. Please read TFA. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/12/us-usa-startup-con...

> That rather explains her position. She doesn't get into the low lying details of tech.

You have to be able to write your own compiler to have any insight into the social dynamics and economic realities of silicon valley? Do you really believe this? Your assertion is laughable. It's clear that once you judged her opinions "invalid" you read just enough of the article to rationalize your opinion.

"I considered her opinion on tech to be invalid when she claimed that tech isn't merit based."

How is tech merit based? Truthfully, most vocational jobs are more merit-based than technology. We see technology companies filtering on a long list of items (school attended, age, etc.) that have very little to do with merit. If you have had opportunity, technology is a wonderful career, but it just isn't merit-based. It does suffer from the same problems as every other professional career.

The merit-based utopia meme needs to leave so we can actually look at the trends and decide if some things need correcting.

Plebs are never assessed on merit because they don't have any. So you get better treatment for one pleb or another pleb because of what school they went to or their gender, but in the end it's all just interchangeable plebs anyway. If you have real talent ("tech bloggers" need not apply) and a bit of a spine then that is going to be the dominant factor in your success. But we see so many stories these days about how various little plebs aren't getting some perceived due that it's becoming a degenerate force.

You are literally calling most people in the world 'plebs'. What is wrong with you?

Also a side question: does me commenting in this thread make it less likely to sink? Because this is the kind of submission that needs to be aborted in the womb.

Ah the language.

How effortlessly, out of all of the possible selections of colloquialisms and metaphors one could select, the ease of cognitive flow.

Maybe, just maybe there is an itsy bitsy bit of merit in her commentary?

You didn't answer my question.

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