Maggie's Farm

The Court's interest in revisiting racial affirmative action got me thinking a bit more about the idea of meritocracy. 

Merit, say, for employment in my field, is relatively easy to assess. We want to hire people who are personable enough to be good colleagues, bright, eager, good writers and speakers, and easily-trainable. If they don't work out, they have to leave. We do not care about your golf game.

So, in my view, merit has to do with the right fit for a job or task. The right talent stack, as Adams would put it.

I know that many private secondary schools (the PSSAT) and, of course, still most higher ed wants test scores.  The SAT and ACT are basically proxies for IQ or, at least, functional IQ as it has to be applied to a test. But is IQ a measure of general merit as a human being? Of course not. It matters, but how much?

Let's say you are head of admissions at a competitive higher ed school with far more applicants than spaces. Your job is to try to field a group of smart kids with enough talents to field sports teams, an orchestra, some math geniuses, etc.  Fill each bucket.

What would you do?

First, Teaspoon. The expression is one teaspoon of loose tea per cup, and one for the pot. For a single cup, one teaspoon. Thus teaspoon. A tablespoon is three teaspoons.

True colors (or colours). Naval war etiquette required taking down your false flag before initiating battle.

Learning the ropes. Sailing ships had over 300 ropes and lines. Newbies had to learn them all, on the double.

Do they exist, or are they just humble human efforts to grasp the structure of creation?

Some feel that Melville wrote the story to mock Dickens. Who knows? The subtitle was A Story of Wall Street. He was the original "quiet quitter."

30-min Great Books podcast about Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville

The arrow of time began its journey at the Big Bang, and when the Universe eventually dies there will be no more future and no past. In the meantime, what is it that drives time ever onward?