logoalt Hacker News

mikert89today at 12:17 PM8 repliesview on HN

Not a joke, living in NYC, I have met a ton of harvard/yale "CEOs". Read their profile, see them in an all hands meeting, they look incredible. Spend any lengthy unscripted time with them behind closed doors, they are absolutely clueless. The trick is true access to these people is so limited, and usually guarded.

With AI we do have the chance to return to meritocracy


Replies

walrus01today at 12:22 PM

> living in NYC, I have met a ton of harvard/yale "CEOs"

> they are absolutely clueless.

That's because you aren't asking them about their college rowing days, yachting, collecting weird mechanical wristwatches, equestrian sports, the best restaurants in the Hamptons or other matters on which they are uniquely suited for and qualified.

show 3 replies
NeutralCranetoday at 1:57 PM

I work for one of these. Never had a real job, and it shows. They sure can present a slide deck. Organizing a company around a coherent strategy is very clearly beyond them.

beezlebroxxxxxxtoday at 12:25 PM

> With AI we do have the chance to return to meritocracy

No, you've identified the real issue: all the CEOs come from Harvard/Yale. There is a very large wealth class divide between the people who get these jobs almost exclusively due to "networking" (often failing upwards) and the increasingly rare people who actually work up to those roles. It's very much a club that uses every tool possible to maintain the opportunity hording, including AI.

This is largely because being an executive in 2026 has very, very, little to due with technical expertise. AI will just be another tool in their workshop for that.

cyanydeeztoday at 12:21 PM

Isn't AI just adding the slipperiest gated layer? I mean, we all agree AI can do their jobs, but that's not how power structures work.

bfleschtoday at 12:23 PM

You have the causation wrong: The secret is growing up as a trust fund nepo kid with offshore money from colonialist activities of your grandparents.

The white-washing of stolen wealth via "self-made" hollywood and startup careers has reached unfathomable levels.

Yes, daddy worked for the US gov in the 70s and somehow we have eight-digit offshore wealth.

ronbentontoday at 12:23 PM

> With AI we do have the chance to return to meritocracy

I think I am more inclined to believe the opposite of this

Waterluviantoday at 12:19 PM

Getting rid of those clever humans is the first step towards a meritocracy.