That's how it works for every organization. Not just corporate America. Want to play on the varsity baseball team? Better be popular with the coaches and other players. Otherwise you're on the bench keeping score. Want to go to Harvard grad school? Better be the right kind of popular. Want to be celebrated in machine learning? Better be popular by doing shallow work on lots of projects. The whole world is a scam, and the scammers always win.

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SoftTalker 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

There's an exception though if you're truly good. If you can hit home runs or throw a baseball with laser accuracy and speed you will be on the varsity team even if you're an introverted social misfit. You might not be team captain but bottom line is the coach wants players who can win games, not be prom king.

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marcinzm 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It’s not a scam. It’s a system that exists for people and made by people. Period. Money, outcomes and so on only have value because people assign them value. If you remove people then what you do has no value or concept of value. Life is not some video game with an omniscient score counter. Other people are the score counter.

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QuantumFunnel 3 hours ago | parent [-]

People are terrible at keeping score for others, because they're usually only paying attention to themselves

	▲	marcinzm 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		There is no objective score and thus people are perfect at it since the score is by definition what other people think it is. Like the value of money or stocks. Once you realize that a lot of life is significantly less frustrating.

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thwarted 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Sometimes achievements speak for themselves and provide the marketing for the actor. But that requires both the achievement to be extremely outsized, so as not to get lost in the noise, and very obviously the result of a singular actor. Only one person can step up to the plate and swing the bat.

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WhyOhWhyQ 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Where I went to school the coach distributed chewing tobacco to players he liked and bullied the nerds. The black kid who was extremely athletic got bullied and switched schools. The starting pitcher was an idiot who drove a big truck, and was not especially talented.

	▲	SoftTalker 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yeah I'm assuming the coach is a normal person who's goal is to build a team and win. If his goal as an adult is to have a lot of teenagers for friends because he himself is still stuck in that mentality, then there's not much you can do but get away.

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raw_anon_1111 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

But you will never make it to the MLB if you are the best baseball player in the MiddleOfNowhere Nebraska and no one knows you exist

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YetAnotherNick 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Depends. Look at the graph of month year of professional hockey player[1]. Player born in first quarter is twice as more likely to be in pro leagues than last quarter. Month of birth's only effect is that it gives 0.5 year extra during junior year to be in spotlight. It shouldn't affect player's performance in any other way. And the effect persists for decades.

If you get supported initially when you aren't the best, the effect of the small support can make you much better player.

[1]: https://www.lockhartjosh.ca/2017/11/hockey-birth-month-why-i...

	▲	SoftTalker 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		In the US, USA Hockey (by far the biggest youth hockey organization) groups players by birth year. So if you are born late in the year, you are among the youngest players on your team. You tend to be smaller, and less experienced, and unless you are exceptional you tend to play less. This impacts you from your first youth teams up until high-school.

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mh2266 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I don’t think being popular with the players is entirely irrelevant for players in team sports. Locker room cohesion matters.

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TimByte 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

But calling the whole world a scam feels like letting the worst parts define the whole yet it can feel like the game is rigged in favor of the loudest or most connected

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micromacrofoot 4 hours ago | parent [-]

It is a scam, it's objective. If you live in ignorance of this you will eventually be taken advantage of. There is nowhere on the planet you can live where you can take people or systems of people at their word.

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venturecruelty 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Sorry, but this feels like a very American take. There are places in the world that still have high social cohesion and high trust. Not everyone is out to get you everywhere all the time, just in societies which encourage that sort of relating to others.

	▲	micromacrofoot 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Which one would you recommend? because AFAIK most of them are consuming the American products that are constantly scamming you... I've experienced this as a resident of the EU as well.

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fragmede 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

If it's only an eventuality, then doesn't that imply that you can mostly take people at their word? If you do nine deals, and get scammed on the the tenth, then doesn't that mean those first nine people are honest and could be taken at their word?

	▲	micromacrofoot 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		lol no the eventuality is because a lot of people are just too poor to even be allowed to engage in deals — they're largely living in faceless systems where they're pre-scammed by faceless corporations

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zeroonetwothree 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It works that way sometimes but I have found that merit and skill does get rewarded. The best case is when you have both.

	▲	landedgentry 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		When merit is easy to define and measure. I have a lot more respect for athletes than tech leaders.