Meritocracy Is Ruining Us
For the past decade, my work in technology innovation and entrepreneurship has centered on a single mission: building technologies that unlock the raw human potential of young people—regardless of their life circumstances, socioeconomic background, or where they come from.
In pursuit of this mission, I’ve founded multiple startups (including HelloGenius); traveled extensively to learn directly from people across cultures and communities; worked with the Obama White House and other governments; partnered with NGOs, foundations, schools, colleges, and workforce training programs; advised business firms; and supported public leaders in shaping future policies.
Along the way, I learned immensely from the people and places I encountered across China, Central and Southeast Asia, India, Africa, Europe, North and South America, and the Middle East. Teachers, parents, executives, and public leaders generously shared their lived experiences—and those insights shaped my thinking as much as any dataset ever could.
The data I collected and analyzed revealed something truly profound: the depth and breadth of human potential is far greater—and far more widely distributed—than our current systems are able to recognize.
Reflecting on these journeys, conversations, and analyses, a few core lessons stand out:
1. Meritocracy is failing us. It is failing young people, families, communities, firms, societies, and entire economies.
2. Our blind adherence to meritocracy in education and employment blocks access to opportunity for countless young people with extraordinary potential—denying them pathways to education, careers, entrepreneurship, capital, leadership, and public service.
3. When people are prevented from realizing their potential, resentment grows. Young people feel overlooked, excluded, and treated unfairly—often in the name of “merit.”
4. This dynamic fuels polarization, dividing societies into the “successful” and “the rest,” convincing many they are simply not good enough.
5. Those who succeed often misattribute their outcomes, believing their success reflects superior merit rather than opportunity, access, timing, and luck.
So what should we do?
We need a better system.
1. Move beyond meritocracy. As an ideology governing access to education, careers, and life opportunities, meritocracy entrenches systematic unfairness rather than eliminating it.
2. Adopt a human-centric way of seeing people—one that actively seeks to discover and develop true potential.
3. Leverage technology to enable every young person, everywhere, identify and demonstrate their potential and gain access to opportunity.
4. Redesign education and employment systems to identify and tap potential across the widest possible socioeconomic spectrum.
Doing this isn’t just morally right. It will also make our economies stronger, our societies more cohesive, and our future far more resilient.
Do you agree?
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Unlock your own hidden potential.