By declaring that everyone could Be Like Me (if only they were properly socialized), the clever can, with clear conscience, continue to surreptitiously wage class war against the clueless.

Steve Sailer, Noticing

The idea that all brains are equally capable of performing all operations is the great scam of our times. “You aren’t trying hard enough!” “You will achieve mastery if you invest 10,000 hours.” “Everybody can succeed in college.” These are egregious lies that hurt people, saddle them with debt, and undermine their lives. But we aren’t noticing because those who have the capacity to do so benefit from not noticing.

I was going to skip Sailer’s article about Jackie Robinson because I vaguely know the story and have no interest in whatever sport he played. But as I was leafing through the piece, my eyes snatched the following sentence: 

We tend to be more outraged by minor slights to winners than by mass atrocities against downtrodden losers.

This is undeniable. Compassion – which means a common, or shared suffering – starts when we identify with the sufferer. What if this pain was visited upon me? What if I were hurt in this way? It’s harder to feel compassion when you don’t want to put yourself in the sufferer’s place at all. And it’s always easier and more pleasant to identify with somebody you see as “just like me”.

Show me who elicits your compassion, and I’ll tell you how you feel about yourself.

Since becoming department Chair 4 years ago, I have found out that every university service – be it accounting, HR, advisement, admissions, interlibrary loans, disability services, or anything else – has one person who’s carrying the workload of the entire unit, knows how everything functions, and guarantees the smoothness of operations. In addition to that one crucial person, there’s a number of confused, bumbling individuals in each unit who know nothing and often get aggressive as a result.

Interacting with these departments always consists in identifying that one individual who actually works and addressing her directly, bypassing the 15 or 20 deadwood workers. After 4 years on the job, I have a list of the people who know what they are doing and interact with them directly. These are always the most cheerful, energetic workers who enjoy what they do and love helping others.

Nobody would even notice if the rest of the workers were fired tomorrow. So it’s not just Twitter.