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The Michael Scott Theory of Social Class
21–30 of 172 posts
Re: The Michael Scott Theory of Social Class
#22Meh.... This has a real "I'm 14 and this is deep" vibe. Like a teenager who thinks their dad is a loser, and that the real men are the guys at the bottom in tough blue collar jobs, or at the top in power suits being Wolves of Wall Street. Insights like this can be fun, but they're for the third beer with your buddies, not for writing down.
This is a very Reddit-esque response.
Re: The Michael Scott Theory of Social Class
#23This is a really well-written article. I am not sure if this spin on the cited references is novel but it is the first I am seeing any of it. I am jarred how well it describes the "middle" of society, including how many of my own behaviors/beliefs are captured. One thing I am having trouble with is the connection between Michael and the "educated" ladder, even though a big portion of the article is dedicated to that.…
The metaphor definitely breaks in the middle ladder. Why not just do labor, middle management, owners like in the first part of the piece? I get that everyone hates NYT opinion writers but that’s like 20 people - not a social class.
Also do software engineers fall into upper middle class or high skilled labor? I think they’re in both. Or maybe I just don’t have any interactions with the middle ladder in real life and I’m clueless
Re: The Michael Scott Theory of Social Class
#24See also "The Peter Principle," which famously argued that everyone eventually rises to their level of incompetence. The more interesting question is what do you do in response to that? The Peter Principle books actually argued you should turn down that last promotion. But how do we avoid becoming Michael Scott?
How do you know it is your last promotion?
Re: The Michael Scott Theory of Social Class
#25Meh.... This has a real "I'm 14 and this is deep" vibe. Like a teenager who thinks their dad is a loser, and that the real men are the guys at the bottom in tough blue collar jobs, or at the top in power suits being Wolves of Wall Street. Insights like this can be fun, but they're for the third beer with your buddies, not for writing down.
The degree to which I agree with this comment is inversely related to the probability that the author is just joking.
Re: The Michael Scott Theory of Social Class
#26See also "The Peter Principle," which famously argued that everyone eventually rises to their level of incompetence. The more interesting question is what do you do in response to that? The Peter Principle books actually argued you should turn down that last promotion. But how do we avoid becoming Michael Scott?
The thing about the Peter Principle is how do you know which is the "last promotion" that you should turn down? No one should turn down the first promotion (from "fresh into the workforce" to "basically competent developer" [or journeyman welder/electrician/plumber or whatever the equivalent is for your field]).
After that it gets murky because everyone has their own abilities and willingness to do what it takes to compensate for their own flaws and take advantage of their strengths.
Re: The Michael Scott Theory of Social Class
#27While climbing the middle ladder, something snapped in me, or perhaps covid accelerated the process. A year or so ago, I was working on my undergraduate thesis project in deep RL, I had been working on the project for 8-9 months at the time. Due to covid, lack of support and computational resources from the university, I was behind, and making progress was difficult. Shortly after I submitted the thesis, I felt an ee…
You should seek a really good therapist, you're far too young to be 'over it' already.
You can live an authentic life, you just don't know how because 1, you're a kid with zero wisdom and 2, you don't yet know what is important (related to point 1).
Re: The Michael Scott Theory of Social Class
#28Michael O' Church has written some amazing blog posts. If you tolerate his style, I highly recommend reading him.
Too bad he fell out of grace from the SV elite (and I can totally see why). I wish he continued writing as much as he was back in the time.
Re: The Michael Scott Theory of Social Class
#29I don't think the author really understands the characterization of Michael Scott. I can't imagine the hypothetical scene of Michael Scott taking pride in knowing how to use chopsticks. That sounds way more out of character to me than having him not know how to use them. Hard for me to take the article seriously when it has to make up character traits for Michael Scott to make its point.
I believe that the type of person the author thinks Michael Scott is exists and sucks (and I'm probably one of them), but I don't think Michael Scott is one of them.
Re: The Michael Scott Theory of Social Class
#30This is a really well-written article. I am not sure if this spin on the cited references is novel but it is the first I am seeing any of it. I am jarred how well it describes the "middle" of society, including how many of my own behaviors/beliefs are captured. One thing I am having trouble with is the connection between Michael and the "educated" ladder, even though a big portion of the article is dedicated to that.…
The metaphor definitely breaks in the middle ladder. Why not just do labor, middle management, owners like in the first part of the piece? I get that everyone hates NYT opinion writers but that’s like 20 people - not a social class. Also do software engineers fall into upper middle class or high skilled labor? I think they’re in both. Or maybe I just don’t have any interactions with the middle ladder in real life and…
The tops of the ladder are there to show what people further down aspire to be. The idea is that if you are a building super you daydream about owning a general contractor business. If you’re a VP at an investment bank you dream of being a billionaire hedge fund manager.
The conceit is that random lawyers and doctors wish they could be the kinds of lawyers and doctors that could get an Op-Ed published, but I don’t think it works. Maybe most Econ PhDs secretly want to be Paul Krugman. I doubt it, but maybe. But no way I buy most doctors secretly want to be Anthony Fauci.