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Pedigree filtering is most often myopic elitism, especially in a business context. Anecdotally, I avoided MIT and Harvard because of Boston's snow and traffic. CalTech is Pasadena: too frick'n hot. I didn't study at all for the SAT-I and aced the math section. (The SAT should be more like the JEE.) I went to an expensive, "top 50" public university where I liked the area. Also, it was more practical and rigorous academically than most Pac10s (Pac12s now) and Ivys because they had something to prove (no grade inflation at all, they don't care if you turn in homework or not, not much market for homework and tests, and proctored exams). I also didn't do a PhD because of the economic disincentive: if I put in the work and the cost, I could do an MD, JD, or PhD CS but there is no added benefit. Most clinical doctors have social skills and crystalized intelligence from domain expertise, but aren't typically mistakable for particle physicists. People don't necessarily require the proper sheepskins to possess fluid, crystallized, and/or other domains of intelligence AND the skills, personality, and experience relevant to excelling at a particular STEM role. Pedigree is mostly used for social filtering and business leadership board packing, but if someone wanted to create an elite monoculture of staff, lacking in cognitive and personality diversity, by all means, go right ahead. PS. I. Don't even get me started about a car full of CS IITians talking about the JEE and high-placers who seem normal on the way to snow country for snowboarding and gambling. PS. II. I bombed an Apple interview for a mid-career role by being too intelligent and too maverick compared to the group of compliant, I hate to say, yuppies. It was an interview panel of about 9 people and they were just speechless. The other time I bombed an interview for being too smart was about 10 years before that when I was 20 at the old Borders bookstore in Palo Alto. Moral of the story: it's important to play dumb where appropriate because most people are relative-intelligence insecure. PS. III. Sorry, reader, for the rambling and discontinuous thoughts. Absurd endocrine values of unknown etiology currently... doctor appointments pending. ): |