LogFAQs > #983490470

Squall28 posted...

From what I've seen in corporate America, people in the managerial track are clueless. It's more about knowing how to manage appearances.

Indeed - so much of the modern corporate work is inundation with random bullshit - a sociologist from the UK termed a lot of these jobs to be "bullshit jobs" - they often have titles like "compliance specialist" and don't do jack shit half the time.

NatsuSama posted...

Thats one misconception I wish would disappear. It's the misconception that brought us people like Trump and Musk.

Like it isn't really a testament of brilliance someone with a massive leg up, "rose to the top." Like being born into money or even powerful connections.

There are a couple of misconceptions that are huge and really problematic in our society:

First - a lot of Americans think that, if someone is "not book smart"...then they have to be "street smart." No. It's just as likely that they're dumb in both areas and got to where they are because of luck and their parents' connections.

Second - a lot of Americans forget the fact that being born into money and having powerful connections *gives you* a lot of this emotional intelligence because you get the benefit of the doubt and you learn how to speak the language of the wealthy. I'll give you an example:

We all know about Elizabeth Holmes and how she basically conned people into thinking she had invented some revolutionary technology, right? Well, there's an even more extreme case - a girl named Charlie Javice made a website called Frank which helped people with applying for student loans and government assistance for college. She boasted 4 million users and was able to sell her company to JP Morgan Chase and get appointed to a managing director position as a result. Of course, 75% of the customers were actually fake email addresses that Javice had paid a data analyst to generate for her, so JP Morgan fired her, is suing her, and she's been charged by the SEC with various frauds.

The point, of course, is that both Elizabeth Holmes and Charlie Javice were able to con people so easily because of their backgrounds. They were white kids from upper-class families who went to exclusive and expensive private schools (they went to private schools which cost $40,000 per year), they had parents who were well-connected in the world of corporate America, and so their fraudulent products got the benefit of the doubt. If they were not upper-class, wealthy, and reasonably attractive girls, do you think they would have been able to con so many people? Of course not. And that's the same with how many CEOs and executives get to where they are. I'm not saying that every CEO/executive is a fraud (though certainly many are), but they're well-versed in the language of corporate bullshit that gets you ahead even when you don't actually *DO* anything.