5 ms·

Because of compounding effects of good habits staring in high school that consequently lead to going to a good school.

paulie_a 8y ago
They could have gone to a community college or Stanford, or been a college drop out. It's not going to sway me. What have you accomplished and will you become a productive and good person to work with is all that matters.
L_Rahman 8y ago
The idea that high school students have good habits that lead them to good colleges that lead to good work behavior is a laughable one. I say this as someone who won the "game" on every count with this. Near-perfect SAT score, perfect high school performance, 100% acceptance rate into the Ivies (Harvard, Columbia, Penn, Cornell). These say nothing about me other than my parenting, background and ability to win games that other people made up. Any intelligence or ability or skill or discipline that I have is in spite of those things, not because of them.
- _dps 8y ago
  > ability to win games that other people made up A common game bosses make up: "impress me with growth in this KPI by next quarter" Rather than proving it is laughable, you are instead giving the exact reason why (under a certain value system) it makes lots of sense to select for this ability.
  - L_Rahman 8y ago
    This is a fair argument and I will concede that if we're thinking about success as the getting high quality compliance for managerial games (which really does make up most entry level work in finance, consulting and tech) then hiring from a top school is highly predictive. Going more meta, starting a median VC-backed company in the Valley is largely playing the same kind of game as in elite private schools and colleges - observing a social scene, identifying powerful players and the ladder to reach them, meticulously performing the necessary social roles in order to achieve funding, cargo cult management styles from the group.

They could have gone to a community college or Stanford, or been a college drop out. It's not going to sway me. What have you accomplished and will you become a productive and good person to work with is all that matters.

L_Rahman 8y ago

The idea that high school students have good habits that lead them to good colleges that lead to good work behavior is a laughable one. I say this as someone who won the "game" on every count with this. Near-perfect SAT score, perfect high school performance, 100% acceptance rate into the Ivies (Harvard, Columbia, Penn, Cornell). These say nothing about me other than my parenting, background and ability to win games that other people made up. Any intelligence or ability or skill or discipline that I have is in spite of those things, not because of them.

_dps 8y ago
> ability to win games that other people made up A common game bosses make up: "impress me with growth in this KPI by next quarter" Rather than proving it is laughable, you are instead giving the exact reason why (under a certain value system) it makes lots of sense to select for this ability.
- L_Rahman 8y ago
  This is a fair argument and I will concede that if we're thinking about success as the getting high quality compliance for managerial games (which really does make up most entry level work in finance, consulting and tech) then hiring from a top school is highly predictive. Going more meta, starting a median VC-backed company in the Valley is largely playing the same kind of game as in elite private schools and colleges - observing a social scene, identifying powerful players and the ladder to reach them, meticulously performing the necessary social roles in order to achieve funding, cargo cult management styles from the group.