A belief in meritocracy is not only false: it’s bad for you | Aeon Ideas

Post-Meritocracy – Will Scott

A defining characteristic of the industrialized world has been the promise of meritocracy: if you’re smart and work hard, you can improve your position in life. The promise has always had limits, and class mobility has often been more aspiration than reality, but the belief itself has been a driving motivation for much of society.…

The myth of meritocracy: who really gets what they deserve?

The long read: Sorting people by ‘merit’ will do nothing to fix inequality

Why Meritocracy Doesn't Work: The Math Behind the Myth

Even a 1% hiring bias compounds dramatically across hierarchies and growth. Here's the math proving why meritocracy fails and diversity initiatives matter.

A More Perfect Meritocracy

Two new books take aim at the moral failures of meritocracy. But we can advocate for a more just society without giving up on merit.

Meritocracy: the great delusion that ingrains inequality | Jo Littler

From Theresa May to Donald Trump, our leaders sell it as a utopian system of fairness – but ‘merit’ has been manipulated to privilege the wealthy

The Truth About Finding a Satisfying Career

Why linking your work to your interests can do more harm than good

The Post-Meritocracy Manifesto - Created by Coraline Ada Ehmke

Meritocracy is a founding principle of the open source movement, and the ideal of meritocracy is perpetuated throughout our field in the way people are recruited, hired, retained, promoted, and valued.

Belonging Is a Right, Not a Reward 

CW: Ableism Disabled people have been made to prove their worth for too long. Society sees value in work, earnings, or productivity, and anyone who doesn’t meet these standards is expected to…

In Praise of “Normal” Engineers

Software engineer Charity Majors challenges the "10x engineer" myth, arguing that true productivity lies in team performance, not individual brilliance. She encourages building workplaces where "normal" engineers can thrive. Are we focusing too much on hiring "the best" instead of the right people?

The Role of Luck in Life Success Is Far Greater Than We Realized

Are the most successful people in society just the luckiest people?

Moral Ambition: Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER - FROM THE 2025 BBC REITH LECTURER A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE SUMMER 2025 'Gives us hope, humour and guidance at a time when all are in short supply' TIMOTHY SNYDER 'The rare read that might actually help you become a better person' ADAM GRANT THE ANTIDOTE TO APATHY FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR RUTGER BREGMAN Every day we're bombarded with methods, mantras and life hacks that promise us wellness and prosperity - while time and talent remain some of our most squandered resources. The average full-time worker will spend 80,000 hours at their job: are you making the most of them? Do you truly believe in what you do, day in, day out? What if you want to do something more with your limited time on the planet? Internationally bestselling author Rutger Bregman shows us that with moral ambition - the will to make the world a wildly better place - we can be both idealistic and successful, and change the world along the way. Uncovering the qualities that made the great change-makers of history so effective, he shows how we too can lend our talents to the biggest challenges of our time, from climate change to inequality to the next pandemic. With moral ambition, we can do more than be on the right side of history: we can make history itself. This book won't make your life easier, but it should make it more meaningful. The question is: what will you do with it? As the 2025 BBC Reith Lecturer, Rutger Bregman will present 'Moral Revolution', a four part series: -A Time of Monsters -How To Start a Moral Revolution -A Realist's Utopia -Zoom Out Available to listen on BBC Four

being too ambitious is a clever form of self-sabotage

on starting, doing, being, and becoming.

My own private basic income

One person’s experience becoming a business owner shows how our economy is based on luck rather than merit and how it rewards people who own stuff rather than people who do stuff.

Fairness is what the powerful ‘can get away with’ study shows

The willingness of those in power to act fairly depends on how easily others can collectively push back against unfair treatment

Pay Enough or Don't Pay at All*

Abstract. Economists usually assume that monetary incentives improve performance, and psychologists claim that the opposite may happen. We present and disc