> When there was a minor conflict on our team, we brought it to him. His response was, “You two should work it out yourselves.” I remember thinking, isn’t that literally your job? You’re not a life coach. You’re a manager. Why are we solving your problems?

Sometimes their job is to help their direct reports take more responsibility, including working things out themselves, where feasible.

Doesn’t really say how it works, though, beyond some vague references to clothing and LinkedIn profiles - seems kind of lite on details honestly.

> Meanwhile, my fiancée cleans houses. Real work. Work you can see. But the moment people hear that, they reduce her. At least sometimes that tells me how she feels. But she works harder than most people in glass buildings ever will. She built a life with her own hands. And still, when people hear “house cleaner,” they act like that tells them the whole story.

Couldn't be more true. Blue collar workers get derided and "other"ed all of the time despite working harder (and riskier) than most of us.

It's almost not worth commenting here because of the reaction I expect to receive. There are a ton of people in this industry who received every opportunity in life because of class and yet are unwaveringly sure that this industry is a meritocracy.

My company hires its software engineers out of the "top schools" and it almost feels like I wrote this post. We have a lot of people who got here through hard work too, but the problem with the other group is that they're completely convinced that their ideas are correct. On everything.

The class war was won decades ago, we're only just now starting to realize it.

The people at the top control literally everything, and they run the world like a gated community, with only those with the proper "Credentials" even being able to get a foot in the door. That foot in the door guarantees you nothing though, only a chance to prove your use to the true masters, who will keep you around and let you hang out in their gated Edens only so long as you continue to be useful to them by making them money.

So how does one get these "Credentials" you might ask? Well, you could be exceptionally talented, absolutely bust your ass in school to get the right degree, and then work like a dog for a decade or more for an at best marginal chance of being let into the club, or as is depressingly the de facto standard, the credentials are stamped onto you at birth if you're lucky enough to be borne into a wealthy and connected family.

The whole goddamn world is a rigged carnival game at this point, with a very small cadre of very wealthy folks setting the rules and for the most part getting to decide who's even allowed to play. If you're very, very, VERY lucky, you might get one ball, and get your chance at a prize, but even then there's a lot more folks who take their shot and lose than their are that win, and the true luxury of the wealthy and connected, is the freedom to take as many shots as it takes until they finally hit a winner.