Passages to Meritocracy discusses admissions at elite institutions and the market of "admissions consultants" to help people game the system
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I see it a whole lot in software engineering too(and that's where I primarily experience it). After all, no matter how cool our languages become, we'll always have things we can't "cleanly" express, and there will always be Oleg's who do the most amazing things with the system(and yet, somehow, also seem like hacks(and I mean that in a complimentary way) that no mere mortal can do on a regular basis). I also don't think "Wabi-Sabi" means agile methods(or any particular methodology, in fact): I see it as a "rejection" of methodology in the sense that its a quality your system either embraces, or does not. I also see it as a bit oppositional to Platonic ideals, and the perfectionism they encourage: The One True Type System, The One True Lisp(*cough* Arc *cough*), and so on. All real software is going to have warts and aspects that seem "inelegant", and while I think there is tremendous value in pursuing that elegance, there's also a value in realizing that you can chase that your entire life and never catch it. Platonic Ideals are
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The communities that I organize will fall apart, and some things will survive, and all I strive for is a temporary beauty.
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