# Michael Sandel: The tyranny of merit | TED Talk

<https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_sandel_the_tyranny_of_merit>

- Host: [ted.com](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/hosts/ted.com/)
- Saved: December 19, 2020 (2020-12-19T13:28:46Z)
- Record: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/ac4a669405d6/
- JSON: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/ac4a669405d6.json

## What Jamie wrote

[Meritocracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meritocracy) has a lot of attractive qualities but I think there is an equal amount of negative too. Recently [Mac Lewis](https://www.linkedin.com/in/macl3/) shared a strong recommendation to [The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good?](https://bookshop.org/books/the-tyranny-of-merit-what-s-become-of-the-common-good/9780374289980) and I found this TED talk from the author as well. There is a lot in this topic to reflect on.

I have personally always felt an indebtedness to luck. When I look at my career and life overall, there are several places where luck played a pivotal role. Like most big things in life though it isn't just one thing, but as this video points out, meritocracy makes it too easy to believe your success is all about your merit. The negative to the commons is too often ignored then.

## Facts

- Kind: [Page](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/kinds/page/)

## Same host

- [Margaret Heffernan: Why it's time to forget the pecking order at work | TED Talk | TED.com](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/fe503e9cc846/) (ted.com, December 6, 2015)
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- [LeeAnn Renninger: The secret to giving great feedback | TED Talk](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/8afe02574056/) (ted.com, March 30, 2021)
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## Elsewhere

- Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_sandel_the_tyranny_of_merit