The trouble with FreeBSD

Posted Jan 30, 2017 2:56 UTC (Mon) by ghane (guest, #1805)
In reply to: The trouble with FreeBSD by mjg59
Parent article: The trouble with FreeBSD

> Meritocracy was meant to be a satirical concept so clearly wrongheaded that nobody could think it was a good idea.

I live in Singapore, having moved here many years ago out of choice.

As a data point, "meritocracy" is a positive word here, and oft-repeated Government policy. It is seen as an antidote to the racial, ethnic, and religious issues common in in the region. And to a very large extent, it has succeeded.

Despite being a minority, (linguistic, religious, ethnic, handsomeness), meritocracy assures me that when I speak with people, all they are evaluating is if I am pitching a valid solution, at a cost they are willing to bear.

Matthew, thanks for the reference, I was not aware it was initially a satirical concept. But since the mid-60s, it has been used in a positive sense, an ideal, here.

The trouble with FreeBSD

Posted Feb 6, 2017 6:57 UTC (Mon) by alankila (guest, #47141) [Link] (1 responses)

Meritocracy may be the worst principle for social organization except for all the others that have been tried before.

The trouble with FreeBSD

Posted Feb 6, 2017 7:16 UTC (Mon) by mjg59 (subscriber, #23239) [Link]

Any system that fails to take into account the circumstances of individuals is inherently going to reward people who look like the existing leadership at the expense of people who don't. This isn't just unfair, it means that you end up making it much harder for people to grow inside your community and harder to recruit people from backgrounds that don't match the majority of the existing community. It may be less bad than some other models, but that doesn't mean it's acceptably good.