[akudha]

Work hard, don't be a jerk and you'll be fine.

This doesn’t always work. I have seen plenty of assholes easily climb the ladder, make tons of money while good people are stuck.

Example: A guy was making 60k, his employer spent tens of thousands on tuition so he could get MBA from a world class school. He took a new job a month after getting his MBA, doubling his salary. That is just one example, I have seen more. One of my CTOs mistreated nearly everyone, still kept failing forward. I’ve seen sexist and racist people at top positions. And so on.

This is not to say that one shouldn’t be nice, but to set the expectation that being nice automatically brings rewards. It does not work that way always.

[saltcured]

I don't think "don't be a jerk and you'll be fine" demands an inverse "be a jerk and you won't be fine". It shouldn't matter if other people succeed even "without merit". AFAICT, none of your scenarios of a jerk explain why someone who is not a jerk cannot also get along fine.

If you define your success as relative to others, and if this sort of "undeserved success" bothers you, then I would say you do have a competitive streak. Seeing everything as a zero-sum game is a very competitive outlook.

[delaynomore]

Well, his employer should've increased his salary accordingly. Frankly, I don't think that's an example of the guy "being a jerk".