The Sort
The Sort is the emergent phenomenon of talent allocation to roles where that talent can achieve maximum output. It was coined by Patrick McKenzie who describes it as follows:
Patrick McKenzie @patio11 We, the societal we, implemented a relatively effective nationwide (and increasingly worldwide) dragnet for talent, then plucked that talent from the not-random-but-constrained walk through lives it would counterfactually have encountered and tracked it fairly narrowly.
Jul 31, 2024[1]
Patrick McKenzie @patio11 Replying to @patio11
The Sort makes many mistakes, in both directions. It leaks promising candidates. The Sort doesn’t really feel good or bad about that, because it is an emergent behavior of a system comprised of many disparate actors with differing incentives, values, and similar.
Jul 31, 2024[2]
Patrick McKenzie @patio11 Replying to @patio11
But, if the Sort would tolerate anthropomorphization (knowing which word it would award you points for, not that many, just the properly calibrated amount), it would look at many outcomes and declare them inefficient.
Jul 31, 2024[3]
Patrick McKenzie @patio11 Replying to @patio11
The Department of Public Works in a small Iowa town is a competent administrator? How competent? Because most forms of competent are inefficiently competent. The Sort would prefer him to have ended up with two OOM more budget and four OOM more impacted users.
Jul 31, 2024[4]
Patrick McKenzie @patio11 Replying to @patio11
The Sort, hearing family history, thinks that it was an obvious mistake that my father was a paralegal (swap with worst lawyer, Pareto improvement) and thinks it got closer with regards to me and still squandered a decade. Not a value judgement; just inefficient, you understand.
Jul 31, 2024[5]
Patrick McKenzie @patio11 Replying to @patio11
The Sort is incredibly aware of agglomeration effects. If one doesn’t understand them, NP, low-productivity areas also require labor forces. One will enjoy taking in the cultural delights of the world’s foremost cities when one can afford to vacation to them.
Jul 31, 2024[6]
Patrick McKenzie @patio11 Replying to @patio11
(The Sort didn’t ban building housing in those cities. It is as puzzled by that as everyone else is. It suggests it’s usual remedy: maybe if we just sort harder the problem will go away. The Sort is correct in its perception that this has worked in many contexts for it.)
Jul 31, 2024[7]
Patrick McKenzie @patio11 Replying to @patio11
The Sort is incredibly aware of criticisms of the social implications of the Sort, and has devoted an appropriate number of 90-95th percentile sorted to thinking about that important, but not very important, problem.
Jul 31, 2024[8]
References[edit]
- ↑ Patrick McKenzie [@patio11] (Jul 31, 2024). "We, the societal we, implemented a relatively effective nationwide (and increasingly worldwide) dragnet for talent, then plucked that talent from the not-random-but-constrained walk through lives it would counterfactually have encountered and tracked it fairly narrowly" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ↑ Patrick McKenzie [@patio11] (Jul 31, 2024). "The Sort makes many mistakes, in both directions. It leaks promising candidates. The Sort doesn't really feel good or bad about that, because it is an emergent behavior of a system comprised of many disparate actors with differing incentives, values, and similar" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ↑ Patrick McKenzie [@patio11] (Jul 31, 2024). "But, if the Sort would tolerate anthropomorphization (knowing which word it would award you points for, not that many, just the properly calibrated amount), it would look at many outcomes and declare them inefficient" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ↑ Patrick McKenzie [@patio11] (Jul 31, 2024). "The Department of Public Works in a small Iowa town is a competent administrator? How competent? Because most forms of competent are inefficiently competent. The Sort would prefer him to have ended up with two OOM more budget and four OOM more impacted users" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ↑ Patrick McKenzie [@patio11] (Jul 31, 2024). "The Sort, hearing family history, thinks that it was an obvious mistake that my father was a paralegal (swap with worst lawyer, Pareto improvement) and thinks it got closer with regards to me and still squandered a decade. Not a value judgement; just inefficient, you understand" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ↑ Patrick McKenzie [@patio11] (Jul 31, 2024). "The Sort is incredibly aware of agglomeration effects. If one doesn't understand them, NP, low-productivity areas also require labor forces. One will enjoy taking in the cultural delights of the world's foremost cities when one can afford to vacation to them" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ↑ Patrick McKenzie [@patio11] (Jul 31, 2024). "(The Sort didn't ban building housing in those cities. It is as puzzled by that as everyone else is. It suggests it's usual remedy: maybe if we just sort harder the problem will go away. The Sort is correct in its perception that this has worked in many contexts for it.)" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ↑ Patrick McKenzie [@patio11] (Jul 31, 2024). "The Sort is incredibly aware of criticisms of the social implications of the Sort, and has devoted an appropriate number of 90-95th percentile sorted to thinking about that important, but not very important, problem" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
