The Meritocracy Myth

In 1896, an African American born as a slave received a Master of Science degree from Iowa State University. He went on to win patents and was highly influential in improving farming and the use of peanuts. People associate him with inventing over 300 products. This shows that training and ability are far more important than how a person starts. Meritocracy claims that background and expensive schooling should count more. However, they are no guarantee for compassion, morality, or business ethics. For true creativity, we need people thinking outside the meritocracy box.

Modern training has shown that nearly anyone can be trained to properly do almost any job. The Meritocracy Myth claims that only certain people can be trained to do them. The certain people could be those of an economic class or only those from select schools or those who make a high score on a test, or only those anointed by their birth. This myth has been proven false time after time. There are people who come from good backgrounds who commit great crimes.

We want people to be properly trained to do the job. It is the training that counts, not how one got into that training. The military takes raw recruits, people with many different levels of existing skills and knowledge, and makes professional soldiers out of them. The military does this day after day. Such training works. Early career mentoring also helps.

But such training isn't the only factor. When a job requires decision making, we want someone with the empathy to make judgements that are for the good of all, not just technical training. Simply doing well on a test or in classes does not mean one has compassion or the ethics to be in charge. Unfortunately, the "meritocracy" of elite schools can be so easily manipulated if one has sufficient resources to be able to game the system. When such gaming of the system becomes routine, regular people have risen up in revolt.

The person who does best on tests is not necessarily the person who will perform the best when needing to make ethical judgements. Expensive background and training do not show what they will do when tempted to get ahead by breaking the rules. Trusting in schools and training to govern us hasn't worked. People who have grown up believing that they are special and should rule often do not know the needs, desires, and thoughts of the rest.

Meritocracy results in people who fit into a bureaucracy. When the need is for creativity, adaptability, or to properly fill the needs of a different population, meritocracy is not the answer. Creativity often happens where people from different cultures interact. America has been enriched by wave after wave of people from different cultures bringing us flavors, foods, and festivals. We took a formerly despised Italian meal and made it American pizza with many different styles and toppings. As things radically change, we need creativity far more than good test taking.

Let us select the best person no matter how they got into the training or school. Our future depends on it.

Creative Destruction

Joann Stores are closing. Many crafters and people who work with fabric are sad. The debt levels were too high to be serviced and there was no way to shrink to greatness. Is this part of the natural cycles of capitalism or is it a sign of something toxic? In the years prior to being purchased by a private equity firm, Leonard Green & Partners, the company had an operating profit of only around $33 million (2% of sales). Yet, the private equity wanted a return on its $1.6 billion purchase price. The later public offering pricing the company at only $400 Million (and generating only $131M) only delayed the inevitable double bankruptcy.

Creative destruction is an accepted aspect of Capitalism. Yet, it has limits and is not always the best solution for the whole population.

Creative destruction works only when the community has resiliency. There are numerous "ghost towns" and far more towns that are fading away with no resiliency.

In the case of Joann Stores, a case may be made that the private equity firm paid far too much for the stores. The store type also did not fit their stated investment strategy of a growth company with multiple ways to win. In short, Leonard Green made a big mistake in buying Joann Stores and the community is paying the price.

But the community has some resiliency. Much of the specific products that had been sold by Joann Stores can be purchased elsewhere or online. Yet, much of the value of the stores were both the discovery by browsing customers and the relationships between the store employees and the community members. These are slow growing market trends and do not make for a fast growing company. This company did not need to be destroyed.

Risky World

The last name of "Null" causes a lot of trouble for many people as many computer systems treat that word as "nothing" or as a value that has to be rejected. That name is not that common, but does exist. Sometimes, people with that name get thousands of notices from around the country for when the real person's name was missing in various company databases.