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September 24, 2007

Meritorious Meritocracy

In a meritocracy, it is those who are without merit who will
be left behind. Do the meritless(*) merit assistance ?

Despite their image as meritocratic beacons of opportunity,
the selective colleges serve less as vehicles of upward mobility
than as transmitters of privilege from generation to generation.

-- JEROME KARABEL

(*) Also including those with a paucity of merit.

Opinion: The New College Try
By JEROME KARABEL
Published: September 24, 2007
Selective colleges serve less as vehicles of upward mobility than
as transmitters of privilege from generation to generation.

See also The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and
Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton
, by Jerome Karabel (2006).

September 15, 2007

Two types of people

There are basically two types of people - those who create glib
dichotomies as a cheap rhetorical device, and those who reject
oversimple two-valued logic as a tool of social inquiry.

MeFi

September 1, 2007

Diversification

Diversification means investing in something uncorrelated,
not inversely correlated.