I believe that the technology industry is a meritocracy and that it should be a meritocracy. I believe that it is a meritocracy because of the rise and fall of companies that we have seen and the nature of the industry as a whole. Given that the technology created by people working in this industry will be used by millions of people worldwide, the products of this industry should be easy to use, fool-proof and of the highest possible quality. The products should be intuitive and easy for the vast majority of our population to access and utilize because that is exactly who is going to be using it. Due to all of these reasons, I believe that merit should be the leading reason for hiring a new engineer or programmer in the technology industry. Companies within the technology industry need to hire the best engineers and programmers to be able to succeed and deploy their product to the masses and, once that happens, continually evolve and adapt to the ever-changing preferences of their end-users while also maintaining the integrity of the product the company puts out. The best engineers and programmers will be able to do this and every company should strive to hire the very best to be able to set themselves apart from all of the other companies in their space. Just as the reading said, the main reason that Facebook overtook MySpace and other early social media platforms was due to Mark Zuckerberg’s talent in both coding Facebook and hiring the very best coders to be able to take what he had given them in the prototype for Facebook and spin it into the Facebook we all know today. I truly believe that it is a good thing for the industry to be a meritocracy because of the nature of the industry today, as I have mentioned. I truly believe that the people that put in the best work and prove to their superiors that they are capable of performing at the highest possible level should be afforded every opportunity to advance their career and move up in their respective company. This belief of mine definitely came from my childhood growing up in the ultimate meritocracy: sports. In sports, the only thing that is looked at when deciding who should start or make a roster is how good of a player you are. That is all that matters because careers, mainly the coach/manager of the team, matter upon it. If the manager of a professional sports team wins games, they will be paid handsomely and for them to win games they need to play the best players whenever possible. I believe that the technology industry, while I do see it as a meritocracy now, should take note of this and apply some of the same ideals. Just as the manager will play the best baseball players to try and win as many games out of 162 as possible, tech companies should hire the best programmers and engineers to try and win as many users out of the general public as possible. The general public will always choose the easiest and most convenient option for them and the easiest way for tech companies to become this option is to hire the best programmers and engineers that can bring efficiency and convenience to whatever company they are working for.