In her chapter titled “Biographies of Hegemony,” Karen Ho criticizes Wall Street’s method of recruiting students from Harvard and Princeton because of they are misguided into believing that these students are the “the best and the brightest.” Ho explains these students are not intelligent, but rather a batch of privileged and well presented students doing a job that requires very little knowledge in the field of finance. The way that Wall Street recruits Harvard and Princeton students, according to Ho, is by giving these students a pedigree to legitimate what is done in the markets. Ho believes the skill of investment banking can be acquired through experience, rather than studying the field. She believes this elite educational system creates
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Ho states this assumption that “smartness generically applies to all members of this class or kind in a way that is naturalized and comprehensively descriptive of this entire group of workers” (184). She believes that companies and recruiters are generalizing Ivy- League students, or more specifically, Harvard and Princeton students by assuming they all fall under this one category of “smartness.” Similarly, in his novel, Gladwell explains this notion to be a “Fundamental Attribution Error” or FAE. He believes this is a blindspot humans have with thinking of character. “...Human beings invariably make the mistake of overestimating the importance of fundamental character traits and underestimating the importance of the situation and context,” Gladwell says, and continues to explain, “We will always reach for a ‘dispositional’ explanation for events, as opposed to a contextual explanation” (159). By this Gladwell means that people make the mistake of focusing on internal characteristics to explain behaviors caused by the environment. Ho explains this is the case with the Wall Street recruiters as they believe that everyone who attends Harvard or Princeton is automatically “smart.” As Bill Hayes, an MIT sloan alumnus and associate at Goldman Sachs, mentions that the batch of …show more content…
Similar to Gladwell’s definition of a “Fundamental Attribution Error,” Ho believes the only reason Wall Street recruiters hire Ivy-League students is because of their internal qualities, but she fails to consider the reason that these students are recruited is because they have already been prefiltered. In addition, Ho fails to realize as seen in the example she provided with Kate Miller, that there are limitations to the Wall Street- Ivy League relationship, as there are with the “Power of Context” theory, such as a racial and gender prejudice. Ho feels that over time, many Harvard and Princeton students are following the same career path of investment banking; however, she does not realize that the “Broken Windows Theory” does not apply here since there are Harvard and Princeton students,such as Katherine Reilly and Matthew Siegel, who criticize people’s drift towards the social norm. Ho brings up many quality points about “the culture of smartness” on Wall Street, but she also does not realize that there is more to pay attention to when analyzing situations. She, like Gladwell, believes that people are victimized by social, cultural, and historical pressures, yet there are individuals who question the common beliefs around them. Ho tries to understand the
Ho states this assumption that “smartness generically applies to all members of this class or kind in a way that is naturalized and comprehensively descriptive of this entire group of workers” (184). She believes that companies and recruiters are generalizing Ivy- League students, or more specifically, Harvard and Princeton students by assuming they all fall under this one category of “smartness.” Similarly, in his novel, Gladwell explains this notion to be a “Fundamental Attribution Error” or FAE. He believes this is a blindspot humans have with thinking of character. “...Human beings invariably make the mistake of overestimating the importance of fundamental character traits and underestimating the importance of the situation and context,” Gladwell says, and continues to explain, “We will always reach for a ‘dispositional’ explanation for events, as opposed to a contextual explanation” (159). By this Gladwell means that people make the mistake of focusing on internal characteristics to explain behaviors caused by the environment. Ho explains this is the case with the Wall Street recruiters as they believe that everyone who attends Harvard or Princeton is automatically “smart.” As Bill Hayes, an MIT sloan alumnus and associate at Goldman Sachs, mentions that the batch of …show more content…
Similar to Gladwell’s definition of a “Fundamental Attribution Error,” Ho believes the only reason Wall Street recruiters hire Ivy-League students is because of their internal qualities, but she fails to consider the reason that these students are recruited is because they have already been prefiltered. In addition, Ho fails to realize as seen in the example she provided with Kate Miller, that there are limitations to the Wall Street- Ivy League relationship, as there are with the “Power of Context” theory, such as a racial and gender prejudice. Ho feels that over time, many Harvard and Princeton students are following the same career path of investment banking; however, she does not realize that the “Broken Windows Theory” does not apply here since there are Harvard and Princeton students,such as Katherine Reilly and Matthew Siegel, who criticize people’s drift towards the social norm. Ho brings up many quality points about “the culture of smartness” on Wall Street, but she also does not realize that there is more to pay attention to when analyzing situations. She, like Gladwell, believes that people are victimized by social, cultural, and historical pressures, yet there are individuals who question the common beliefs around them. Ho tries to understand the