Sometimes It’s Not
The best XKCD comic is the one where the guy refuses to go to bed because someone is wrong on the internet.
It begs an interesting question: should you care if someone you don’t know and/or respect doesn’t know and/or respect you?
I think the answer comes down to understanding. If you’ve put in the time and effort to understand something, but still don’t know and/or respect it, that’s that. But if you haven’t, that’s unfair. But how much time begets understanding?
And how much time should one need to understand?
My daughter had a tryout experience recently that didn’t end the way she hoped. Everyone in a superior position of knowledge to the person running the tryout was flabbergasted. But the decision was the decision.
Why does this happen?
Markets are inefficient for the same reason people are wrong on the internet. And for the same reason Michael Jordan was cut as a sophomore from the varsity team at Emsley A. Laney High School in Wilmington, North Carolina. I mention that because I told my daughter that story after her recent tryout experience. Of course, Michael Jordan doesn’t resonate like he used to, but we watched some highlights and she got the point. (And then there was the whole Bill Belichick NFL Hall of Fame snub.)
I’ve written previously that the world is more merit-based than it appears. But the reason it appears not merit-based from time to time is because, well, sometimes it’s not.
– Tim
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