Good article. As a blue collar guy with no degree who is nevertheless pretty capable, can you elites start erasing worthless degree requirements for jobs that obviously don't require degrees? If you are in the C-suite, surely you can accompmish this simple task, yes? It's all well and good to pursue an elite path, but can you help your brothers out a bit by smashing this bullshit credentialing system?
There are plenty of us who have been shut out of good jobs that we can do because we didn't check a box. Please don't forget us.
However - the requirement persists (even at Thiel and Elon's companies - who are notably anti-academy) because it's the only proxy for IQ (however weak) that is still permitted, and it's therefore a useful if crude function to whittle down the huge number of applications modern companies get.
"The college selection process favors those groups that are willing to sacrifice their children to a brutal study-culture, or those groups that don’t need to, because their minority identity renders exceptional grades unnecessary.
This system is the result of the progressive project to obscure reality. Due to constraints on employers’ ability to test candidates for intelligence, organizations must crudely infer candidates’ aptitude from their credentials. This mechanism can be manipulated by the Left, which controls the credential machine." etc.
SpaceX and Anduril farm low-cost parts from highly technical CNC and lathe operators across America making $30k a year that they're incapable of making in-house because the company culture has AnCom tranny brain rot.
You nailed it here, Johann: working at elite institutions that are populated by variations in ideological thought from your own is essential. I work within the games industry and deal with folx of liberal and progressive persuasions every day. Many of these people—despite what the grifting wannabe intellectual class would tell you—are brilliant; you will learn from them and there is no need to engage in anything other than a surface level discussion about current affairs or politics. The best of the best are dedicated to the work itself, as you should be. This fact soon reveals itself in any competitive industry.
I see veritable legions of writers and artists complaining about progressive dominance in both elite institutions and the arts, but one can either deride them or work alongside them and learn, potentially affecting many projects and producing top-quality work.
This is the way—enough complaining; get out there and do the work that needs to be done before you deride these institutions and companies. Complaining is unbecoming of those who seek virtue, wealth, and success.
Thank you. And we have much to learn from those people. An accessible example is a reactionary filmmaker like Mel Gibson, who very much 'came up' inside the academy, which gave him the skills and experience to later execute on his own radical visions.
I 100% agree with this. Every single milieu needs good people, and God forms people for every stratum. We should encourage those with such gifts to develop and use them. To discourage them seems like sour grapes to me.
One of my friends is married to a nuclear physicist. They have four lovely daughters who are being bred with high class sensibilities. Their girls are well read, well-travelled, accomplished ballerinas, etc... They are able to give their girls things we can't give our children because of resources and time. Sometimes my friend, being from good Midwestern stock, is apologetic about the good things they have because it seems extravagant to talk about them. (Which is ridiculous both because her husband is NUCLEAR PHYSICIST, and they are quite down to earth and generous with their means.) But I give thanks for how they are able to raise their girls. They are going to be wonderful wives for some high-powered husbands someday and bring their Christian values with them to sanctify that level of society.
Thank you for this! So often the DR advice of “just work in the trades” ignores the (few) who are really suited to elite work. It reminds me of the evangelicals who told their kids to stay out of the arts and entertainment industries and we are where we are today because of it.
To me that's kind of a woke thing, to avoid left wing organizations. That's the way they behave where they try to avoid and ostracize right wing people and ideas. It makes them weak. We should be confident and strong enough to go into places where we might be outnumbered. Just have to be smart about it.
Also reminds me of when people say to buy only from organizations with your values, or only pay attention to such, and a lot of the time that just isn't possible. You'd have to move to a cabin in the woods and try to survive that way. Like the NBA is obviously fairly woke, but to me that's just focusing on a symptom; the NBA isn't creating that political ideology they're just hopping on the bandwagon.
While I can't help but wince at words like networking, startup, role, elite--*for THOSE people?!*--etc and the fluro-lit, go-getting, crabs-in-a-bucket world they connote, I am able to separate form from content and see the hard wisdom in your advice.
But I wonder if others maybe cannot. The corporate ethos hit maximum obnoxiousness a while back, and a lot of SYM probably(?) struggle even with the vocabulary--but I could be wrong.
In any case I think one problem to consider is that liberal-arts inclined SYM face the hardest problem: humanities departments are now hollowed out and penalise free thought in a way that tech, law and your other foci in this article do not. On the basis of my own experience I am not sure whether I would advise SYM who are severely tilted in the verbal/humanities direction to pursue PhDs, postdocs etc, particularly as humanities 'startups' (yuck!) are hardly in demand. What would you say?
I did a humanities graduate degree and swore that I'd never spend another minute in academia again. Academia should be a quest for the truth, and when the truth is verboten, nothing feels more crushing or pointless. Undergrad still a good idea (a degree is still necessary at many companies which claim it isn't) but transition to something productive as fast as possible after that
Having worked at a great technology company and been inspired by the genius and visions of incredible men I say with certainty, it was a spiritual experience.
I got some pushback by saying that my personality type probably mingles better with old money democrats than it does with your average republican. The elitism I believe is what is behind that sentiment.
As a federal worker at a high level agency my experience has been similar. Is it perfect? No, but I have gained skills way beyond what I could have thought.
What you suggest rings true - iron sharpens iron, and only in those high performance jobs, under right people can you pick up the right skills or develop diligence required to pull off the necessary changes. You are also correct in describing it as the elite path, as it requires a measure of sacrifice and reconing with own ego - there's always something to learn and there will always be people who will be better than you , but developing your own potential and own goals should still happen, as no one else will do those for you.
What that elite cadre will have to do though is develop culture and spaces for themselves and the regular guys who don't have those finer talents, but who would be more than happy to contribute. Hopefully we can move beyond purely online spaces at some point.
"In tech this means FAANG and FAANG-adjacent (even better if they do decidedly ‘unwoke’ work, like Anduril). In consulting, McKinsey, BCG, Bain. In finance, elite boutiques and trading firms like Jane Street. Law - Cravath, etc. - depends on your country.
Don’t select a company that you think has the highest average IQ; select the role in which you will have access to the small number of ultra-high performers that you can learn from, the elite within the elite."
While you might say this, your actions are saying otherwise.
You, yourself, are moving to start a community. You believe that our institutions are failing us. That we have no real communities. That we have no real governments. That the governments are St Augustine's band of robbers, posing as governments.
And I would agree with you.
Therefore, being 'Elite' within such an environment is to join it. To partake of it. To play its games and conform to its rules, as you yourself acknowledge by laying out the terms one must accept to attain such heights.
Or, one might build new Polities, such as you yourself are speaking of doing. Become a new elite, where you literally get to create the rules. Where virtue, and not simply IQ or money, may play a part in what makes the Nobility. Where there is a real folk, a real high culture. Where there are real guidelines that make sense, no slavery, and something worth fighting for.
Good article. As a blue collar guy with no degree who is nevertheless pretty capable, can you elites start erasing worthless degree requirements for jobs that obviously don't require degrees? If you are in the C-suite, surely you can accompmish this simple task, yes? It's all well and good to pursue an elite path, but can you help your brothers out a bit by smashing this bullshit credentialing system?
There are plenty of us who have been shut out of good jobs that we can do because we didn't check a box. Please don't forget us.
You're right - many degrees are worthless.
However - the requirement persists (even at Thiel and Elon's companies - who are notably anti-academy) because it's the only proxy for IQ (however weak) that is still permitted, and it's therefore a useful if crude function to whittle down the huge number of applications modern companies get.
If we could IQ test, we could do away with degree requirements (outside highly technical subjects) tomorrow. I wrote about this here: https://becomingnoble.substack.com/p/innocence-lost
"The college selection process favors those groups that are willing to sacrifice their children to a brutal study-culture, or those groups that don’t need to, because their minority identity renders exceptional grades unnecessary.
This system is the result of the progressive project to obscure reality. Due to constraints on employers’ ability to test candidates for intelligence, organizations must crudely infer candidates’ aptitude from their credentials. This mechanism can be manipulated by the Left, which controls the credential machine." etc.
That makes total sense. Thanks for replying. The solutions to this problem are generational.
Indeed
SpaceX and Anduril farm low-cost parts from highly technical CNC and lathe operators across America making $30k a year that they're incapable of making in-house because the company culture has AnCom tranny brain rot.
Talk about obscuring reality!
From personal experience, I can state the following: this checks out.
👍
You nailed it here, Johann: working at elite institutions that are populated by variations in ideological thought from your own is essential. I work within the games industry and deal with folx of liberal and progressive persuasions every day. Many of these people—despite what the grifting wannabe intellectual class would tell you—are brilliant; you will learn from them and there is no need to engage in anything other than a surface level discussion about current affairs or politics. The best of the best are dedicated to the work itself, as you should be. This fact soon reveals itself in any competitive industry.
I see veritable legions of writers and artists complaining about progressive dominance in both elite institutions and the arts, but one can either deride them or work alongside them and learn, potentially affecting many projects and producing top-quality work.
This is the way—enough complaining; get out there and do the work that needs to be done before you deride these institutions and companies. Complaining is unbecoming of those who seek virtue, wealth, and success.
Thank you. And we have much to learn from those people. An accessible example is a reactionary filmmaker like Mel Gibson, who very much 'came up' inside the academy, which gave him the skills and experience to later execute on his own radical visions.
I 100% agree with this. Every single milieu needs good people, and God forms people for every stratum. We should encourage those with such gifts to develop and use them. To discourage them seems like sour grapes to me.
One of my friends is married to a nuclear physicist. They have four lovely daughters who are being bred with high class sensibilities. Their girls are well read, well-travelled, accomplished ballerinas, etc... They are able to give their girls things we can't give our children because of resources and time. Sometimes my friend, being from good Midwestern stock, is apologetic about the good things they have because it seems extravagant to talk about them. (Which is ridiculous both because her husband is NUCLEAR PHYSICIST, and they are quite down to earth and generous with their means.) But I give thanks for how they are able to raise their girls. They are going to be wonderful wives for some high-powered husbands someday and bring their Christian values with them to sanctify that level of society.
Yes. A functional society is one that is both hierarchical and harmonious - not artificially flat and suppressed
Thank you for this! So often the DR advice of “just work in the trades” ignores the (few) who are really suited to elite work. It reminds me of the evangelicals who told their kids to stay out of the arts and entertainment industries and we are where we are today because of it.
Thank you Whisky. We all have our own paths to walk!
To me that's kind of a woke thing, to avoid left wing organizations. That's the way they behave where they try to avoid and ostracize right wing people and ideas. It makes them weak. We should be confident and strong enough to go into places where we might be outnumbered. Just have to be smart about it.
Also reminds me of when people say to buy only from organizations with your values, or only pay attention to such, and a lot of the time that just isn't possible. You'd have to move to a cabin in the woods and try to survive that way. Like the NBA is obviously fairly woke, but to me that's just focusing on a symptom; the NBA isn't creating that political ideology they're just hopping on the bandwagon.
While I can't help but wince at words like networking, startup, role, elite--*for THOSE people?!*--etc and the fluro-lit, go-getting, crabs-in-a-bucket world they connote, I am able to separate form from content and see the hard wisdom in your advice.
But I wonder if others maybe cannot. The corporate ethos hit maximum obnoxiousness a while back, and a lot of SYM probably(?) struggle even with the vocabulary--but I could be wrong.
In any case I think one problem to consider is that liberal-arts inclined SYM face the hardest problem: humanities departments are now hollowed out and penalise free thought in a way that tech, law and your other foci in this article do not. On the basis of my own experience I am not sure whether I would advise SYM who are severely tilted in the verbal/humanities direction to pursue PhDs, postdocs etc, particularly as humanities 'startups' (yuck!) are hardly in demand. What would you say?
I did a humanities graduate degree and swore that I'd never spend another minute in academia again. Academia should be a quest for the truth, and when the truth is verboten, nothing feels more crushing or pointless. Undergrad still a good idea (a degree is still necessary at many companies which claim it isn't) but transition to something productive as fast as possible after that
Fantastic article with realistic advice for the younger among our guys.
Thanks Gabbai
Iron sharpens iron, unless you’re surrounded by brass billets.
Thanks Johann
Thanks AM
Phenomenal advice. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you KS
Having worked at a great technology company and been inspired by the genius and visions of incredible men I say with certainty, it was a spiritual experience.
Johann, my inflection here is that most of “greatness” occurs outside of ordinary reality!
We were meant to learn greatness in a personal relationship with the generations who came before!
Fucking he'll you're advertising people to be two faced for decade for what? Pay off a mortgage and secretly be based? GFY.
I got some pushback by saying that my personality type probably mingles better with old money democrats than it does with your average republican. The elitism I believe is what is behind that sentiment.
As a federal worker at a high level agency my experience has been similar. Is it perfect? No, but I have gained skills way beyond what I could have thought.
What you suggest rings true - iron sharpens iron, and only in those high performance jobs, under right people can you pick up the right skills or develop diligence required to pull off the necessary changes. You are also correct in describing it as the elite path, as it requires a measure of sacrifice and reconing with own ego - there's always something to learn and there will always be people who will be better than you , but developing your own potential and own goals should still happen, as no one else will do those for you.
What that elite cadre will have to do though is develop culture and spaces for themselves and the regular guys who don't have those finer talents, but who would be more than happy to contribute. Hopefully we can move beyond purely online spaces at some point.
"In tech this means FAANG and FAANG-adjacent (even better if they do decidedly ‘unwoke’ work, like Anduril). In consulting, McKinsey, BCG, Bain. In finance, elite boutiques and trading firms like Jane Street. Law - Cravath, etc. - depends on your country.
Don’t select a company that you think has the highest average IQ; select the role in which you will have access to the small number of ultra-high performers that you can learn from, the elite within the elite."
While you might say this, your actions are saying otherwise.
You, yourself, are moving to start a community. You believe that our institutions are failing us. That we have no real communities. That we have no real governments. That the governments are St Augustine's band of robbers, posing as governments.
And I would agree with you.
Therefore, being 'Elite' within such an environment is to join it. To partake of it. To play its games and conform to its rules, as you yourself acknowledge by laying out the terms one must accept to attain such heights.
Or, one might build new Polities, such as you yourself are speaking of doing. Become a new elite, where you literally get to create the rules. Where virtue, and not simply IQ or money, may play a part in what makes the Nobility. Where there is a real folk, a real high culture. Where there are real guidelines that make sense, no slavery, and something worth fighting for.
So, which Elite would one rather pursue?
The fake and gay one?
Or the new one?