Smith's NYRB essay 'Generation Why?,' is essential reading IMO [0].
She nicely explains how so many bright, hardworking folks can end up optimizing on goals that made sense to, e.g., a 20 year old college dropout, but that might not produce much social value overall. Considering when she wrote it, the essay is downright prophetic.
The general point about the magazine being a venue for "elitist, East coast, alternative, intellectual, left-winged" [1] authors to write to and about each other is well taken. But I don't think they just got lucky in featuring ZS, I think they make an active effort to get good authors writing on important topics.
In some circumstances, nepotism and meritocracy might be observationally equivalent [2].
[0] https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2010/11/25/generation-why/
[1] https://twitter.com/30_rock_quotes/status/7699430022?lang=en
[2] I think it was Gary King who said this, on the subject of how top ranked political science departments dominate the job market, but I can't find the exact quote.
She nicely explains how so many bright, hardworking folks can end up optimizing on goals that made sense to, e.g., a 20 year old college dropout, but that might not produce much social value overall. Considering when she wrote it, the essay is downright prophetic.
The general point about the magazine being a venue for "elitist, East coast, alternative, intellectual, left-winged" [1] authors to write to and about each other is well taken. But I don't think they just got lucky in featuring ZS, I think they make an active effort to get good authors writing on important topics.
In some circumstances, nepotism and meritocracy might be observationally equivalent [2].
[0] https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2010/11/25/generation-why/
[1] https://twitter.com/30_rock_quotes/status/7699430022?lang=en
[2] I think it was Gary King who said this, on the subject of how top ranked political science departments dominate the job market, but I can't find the exact quote.