Exactly.
There are 'kind' and 'un-kind' readings of this situation.
For many years I swallowed the story that companies are a 'meritocracy', and got very upset when they were not (nepotism, hiring people that under-perform).
But then realized, maybe sometimes it is 'pragmatic'. It is more like 'moneyball', they are not hiring the 'best', but maybe they are hiring the 'known quantity'.
Sure, there is some cases where you can be mad at nepotism. But I tend to think people are generally good and trying to do the right thing. Sometimes the story goes "I don't know much about programming, but I'm going to hire my nephew because he seems smart", is innocent.
For many years I swallowed the story that companies are a 'meritocracy', and got very upset when they were not (nepotism, hiring people that under-perform).
But then realized, maybe sometimes it is 'pragmatic'. It is more like 'moneyball', they are not hiring the 'best', but maybe they are hiring the 'known quantity'.
Sure, there is some cases where you can be mad at nepotism. But I tend to think people are generally good and trying to do the right thing. Sometimes the story goes "I don't know much about programming, but I'm going to hire my nephew because he seems smart", is innocent.