Seething with anger at this depiction of their 'image..so I'll copy/paste eblume's sole comment for the Hacker News thread: "It seems like the article is reporting that 'the nerds of Silicon Valley are all upset' that rich people are getting rewarded for success in a meritocracy." "First, where are these meetings I've been missing where all the nerds of Silicon Valley get together and decide what they like and what they don't like? I for one did not vote on the Meritocracy Referendum - was this my mistake, or were other nerds disenfranchised in that regional election?" "Put it another way - the youngest generation of rich entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley are the children of successful hackers (or at least some of them are)." #elitism #fuckyou #hypocrisy #meritocracy #disingenuous #web2.0 #silicon #valley #pub

No one cares about the poor or disenfranchised. Lol. #meritocracy #plutocracy #bullshit #article #journalism #disingenuous #status #class #social #divide #mass #media #money #wealth #pub

Retort to The Atlantic's article (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/01/the-rise-of-the-new-global-elite/8343/?single_page=true) "It could be argued that a quarter or so of the super-rich coming from ordinary backgrounds is sufficient to justify The Atlantic’s contention that they are more meritocratic than their predecessors. Firstly there have always been people who made a fortune from nothing: this is not new. More fundamentally, just a quarter coming from ordinary backgrounds still means that those whose parents are very rich are (at least) hundreds of times more likely to be in the elite themselves than someone from an ordinary family. Some meritocracy!" #retort #independent #journalism #blog #article #meritocracy #plutocracy #status #class #money #wealth #social #divide #peer #pub

Alain de Botton examines our ideas of success and failure -- and questions the assumptions underlying these two judgments. Is success always earned? Is failure? He makes an eloquent, witty case to move beyond snobbery to find true pleasure in our work. #alain #botton #success #failure #meritocracy #society #elitism #bullshit #lies #perceptions #work #video #talk #pub

The pelé of dismissals of meritocracy and current educational system. A few awesome links, one part of comment says, "…showing that colleges preferentially admit by ability to pay rather than by intelligence or ability to gain from college studies (a finding consistent with the advice given by consulting firms that advise colleges on admission practices)…" #meritocracy #links #comment #formal_education #success #academics #pub

At least one of the students whose parents stand accused of fraud doesn’t appear to have been very interested in higher education in the first place. #elitism #bullshit #status_quo #meritocracy #pub

“The whole country has been rocked by the news that hundreds of parents have been accused of bribing their kids’ way into elite colleges — and also U.S.C.,” Noah said. #meritocracy #status_quo #elitism #bullshit #pub