Interestingly enough, institutionalized meritocracy always selects for mediocrity, not excellence. Actual excellence is a subversive threat to models of merit.
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Institutions need legible metrics to measure performance. Excellence works towards the metric where it’s useful, but discards it where it becomes a poor approximation. Mediocrity plays by the book and scores high on all the standardized tests.
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My pet name for this: ‘ladder-minded’ — for the sort of people who, if they see a ladder leaning against a wall, race to climb it, with no thought to where it goes, who put it there, or what’s around the corner.
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I think we’re talking about opposite things. Maze bright - self-aware, calculated playing of games set up by others, but to your standards.
Ah, I get it. Was confused. Nice to have a term for the other end of the spectrum!
In practice there’s a fine line between what you describe and merely cynical ladderists, whose ambition is just to skip a step or two while moving in the direction they were originally assigned.
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To me, the phrase "maze bright" immediately suggests mice running through a pointless experimental maze that is controlled by others. I'm not sure it has the connotations you want; you may want to take a survey.



