Yes, but ….

 

We don’t fetishize “achievement” and we keep taking money and educational 
opportunity off the top and pouring it in at the bottom, not because we have 
empathy for those poor people but because we recognize that 
there-but-for-the-grace-of-God go we.  

 

N

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

 <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]

 <https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/> 
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

From: Friam <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Frank Wimberly
Sent: Sunday, September 13, 2020 12:26 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Getting You Libertarians' Goats

 

Agreed.

---
Frank C. Wimberly
140 Calle Ojo Feliz, 
Santa Fe, NM 87505

505 670-9918
Santa Fe, NM

 

On Sun, Sep 13, 2020, 12:21 PM Marcus Daniels <[email protected] 
<mailto:[email protected]> > wrote:

Yes, but so what?   If there is a lottery system for top universities (per the 
abstract), how is that substantially different from just viewing individuals a 
cluster of particles in the expanding universe?   It’s one kind of luck or 
another.  

 

From: Friam <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > On 
Behalf Of Frank Wimberly
Sent: Sunday, September 13, 2020 11:15 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[email protected] 
<mailto:[email protected]> >
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Getting You Libertarians' Goats

 

More luck.  Luck isn't the only thing but it's important.  Nick Hanauer says 
that years ago he had a couple million to invest and he was presented with a 
couple of venture capital opportunities.  He had no idea which to choose so he 
essentially flipped a coin.  His choice was Amazon and he's now a 
multi-billionaire.

---
Frank C. Wimberly
140 Calle Ojo Feliz, 
Santa Fe, NM 87505

505 670-9918
Santa Fe, NM

 

On Sun, Sep 13, 2020, 11:56 AM Marcus Daniels <[email protected] 
<mailto:[email protected]> > wrote:

Taking the view that success is nothing more than an outcome of a random 
percolation process, the individuals on the `winning’ end of that percolation 
process are significantly different from the people that got stuck somehow.   
They have more skills, more knowledge, more contacts, more experience.  Yes 
there are arguable counter examples:  PhDs that do management and lose their 
technical edge, or individuals that are too specialized to do anything very 
useful.    But by in large it is helpful to be around people that study and 
solve hard problems for a living and accumulate expertise.   If it is a given 
that there are only so many slots available or needed for highly-skilled people 
in a society, then whether there is `justice’ for that selection isn’t really 
related to merit as a thing (versus as a process).   What’s really needed to 
get more people through some kind of enriching percolation process is a 
*demand* for it – huge numbers of open, positions that will participate in 
creating diverse services people want to pay for.   Then the various kinds of 
organizations that provide appropriate support for learning can adapt to that 
need.    

 

From: Friam <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > On 
Behalf Of [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> 
Sent: Sunday, September 13, 2020 10:28 AM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' <[email protected] 
<mailto:[email protected]> >
Subject: [FRIAM] Getting You Libertarians' Goats

 

This should do it!

 

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/michael-j-sandel/the-tyranny-of-merit/

 

The thesis is that “meritocracy” is the cause of the fact that the us is now 
the least socially mobile country among the western democracies.  

 

Nick 

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> 

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

 

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