horatio

So we end up with this Horatio Alger mythos born of the dissonance between success and merit.

I posted something earlier about the divide between the rich/poor--and claimed something about the lack of modern Horatio Algiers.

It's like the old British sailing ships that Horatio Hornblower sailed on.

I'm no Horatio Alger character; I probably can't afford to live in the Bay Area even now -- so I don't.

Of course none of this happened, the system is fair, everyone is born on a level playing field in this American system of Horatio Alger stories where anyone with gumption and a work ethic can be rich...

AWS isn't some scrappy upstart from a Horatio Alger novel.

I pulled myself up by the bootstraps though and learned Python/Django web dev, real horatio alger style, and now I live the life of a well paid consultant in Astoria, NYC.

If you enjoy the place and time of writing like this, and the funny turns of phrases and witty voices of young people, now's a good time to read a story or two by Horatio Alger.

They shouldn't feel guilty, but if thy were hired by their friend in the early 2000's, with no programming experience, and the friends father set up the Everything; Don't act like you were the Horatio Alger of the Computer industry.

The dominant clique here now will laugh at you for saying this, and accuse you of believing in Horatio Alger stories, and will tell you that all success is good luck, and that you can claim no credit for your work and any resulting success.

There's a particularly powerful passage near the end where Simon flat out shatters the Horatio Alger myths that many middle-class suburbanites cling to, particularly the idea that should they find themselves in that situation, they'd simply apply a little Puritan gumption and work their way out their unfortunate circumstances.

You can be the Doctor who charges too much for addictive meds, the non-profit director who makes a very comfortable living off other people misery.(free preview Guidestar.), or the rich kid who made millions off plastic tooth picks(which don't decompose) and moved to another state to get away from daddy(inventor, funder, bank, cheerleader), dodge taxes, and act like Horatio Alger.

Horatio must be spinning in his grave ("there are more things,...

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

I take this as the "Horatio Alger" myth: you are born to a dock worker, and end up President of the USA, or CEO of a Big Company, a unique trajectory only possible in America.

From my perspective, it's not so much that there is an anti-meritocracy trend in America, as that America has classically had a popular culture of "if you work hard, you will succeed" that has been taken to the extreme (Horatio Alger, as an example).

Horatio Alger, as long as he spends less than he makes, is a source of infinite money.

There is far more to mathematics, dear Horatio, than is dreamt of in the OP's philosophy.

There are more philosophies on Earth, Horatio, than are things in your dreams...