Friday, February 02, 2018
Straight to the top
I notice a common pattern in questions from younger folks on Quora.
"If I want to talk to Donald Trump, which words should I say to the operator?"
"How do I get a job at Google?"
There have always been people with an inflated sense of their status and influence. "I never waste time with underlings. Always talk to the top man!"
In previous decades this jacked-up type was constantly mocked in drama and in ordinary conversation. Everyone understood that life has layers and modules. You have influence in your module. There's no way for you to influence the Top Man or get into the Top Circle, and you shouldn't want to get into those circles. You can't stay in those places unless you are an incurably evil genocidal maniac, satanic beyond poor old Satan's worst nightmares.
Now that layers have been short-circuited by globalism and the Web, the Top Man delusion is common.
It still doesn't work. The short circuit runs only one way.
If you are able to talk to a president you are already talking to a president. If you are on Quora asking the question, you are not able to talk to a president. There are no magic words.
If you are able to get a job at Google you are already working at Google. If you are not already working at Google, you should focus on the job you have now. Apply your talents to this job just as enthusiastically as you imagine you would apply them at Google. You will do far more good for yourself AND for the world.
Labels: skill-estate
¶ 2:07 AM
