[001sky]

There is a set of legitimate economic issues raised about the cognitive overhead of alternative selection models, etc. Its not like its all in somebody's head. That being said, the trivial view of "meritocratic" selection is not the right model to articulate. These jobs weed out people who don't have a certain level of technical competence, but technical competence (level) is trumped by the speed and consistency (of application) in many cases. Also, the ability to "avoid doing work" is a skill or a feature, not a bug or a liability. Again, this is not really going to line up with the notion of merit being who can do the "most work" at the "highest level". But it turns out one way to test who can "avoid doing needless work" is to force such a high workload that some work must by necessity be avoided. If that makes any sense. I dunno.

[stephengillie]

It sounds like you're describing the Bill Gates quote: "I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it."

To which others counter: "The lazy person will just not do the job." And you're describing something closer to the ideal of only doing the important part of the job, and being able to discern the important work from the unimportant.