Searching for an article about class, risk, and faking it

July 12, 2017 6:04 AM

A few years ago I read an interesting article/blogpost describing how the "fake it 'till you make it" strategies currently in vogue with the startup/entrepreneurial set are very difficult for people from more modest class backgrounds to put into practice. Much of the difficulty was attributed to the different levels of risk tolerance appropriate for privileged v. underprivileged/average persons. Hypothetical example workplace scenarios were given. I believe the article was written in a colloquial style reminiscent of Cracked magazine and may have been authored by someone in the self-improvement/entrepreneurship sphere. Does this ring any bells?
posted by Svejk to Work & Money (6 answers total)

Is it this article?
posted by Schielisque at 1:03 PM on July 12, 2017

Maybe one of the articles linked from http://metatalk.metafilter.com/24415/looking-for-article-on-man-sneaking-into-an-event?
posted by last_fall at 2:02 PM on July 12, 2017

It's not the Quartz article, but the article I am recalling is very much on that theme, with examples of workplace attitudes and behaviours that are tolerated/rational in the well-heeled but risky for the poor.
posted by Svejk at 2:02 PM on July 12, 2017

I remember reading something along those lines at Cracked, and apparently John Cheese has written quite a lot about the topic there. Someone at Reddit put together a nice compilation.
posted by teekat at 5:28 PM on July 12, 2017

Is it this one? I think it doesn't have too much in the way of workplace scenarios but it checks your other boxes: focused on risk-taking, conversational tone, written by a start-up founder.
posted by eeek at 6:13 PM on July 12, 2017

Have not seen the article among the possibilities posted here, but I appreciate the links to related content.
posted by Svejk at 2:05 AM on July 24, 2017