Our computer experts are asked from time to time to allocate funds for new hardware and software for our company. Un...
ritagentileAugust 12, 2020
Still not understanding
Hello,
after reading the explanation I still don't understand why A is incorrect. The stimulus says that the experts are excited by cutting edge technology that is not a profitable investment for the business.
So when A says, the executives favor those who share their interests, not those who have had the most education, why doesn’t this work? Isn’t it less profitable to not promote those who have had the most education?
I understand that C is a good answer, and it was my second choice, but what swayed me from it is that it said “Serve the interests of the community”, while the stimulus focused on how the decision would not be a profitable investment for the company. Not serving the interests of the wider community doesn’t always mean less profitable, it could just be cutting costs, catering to a certain smaller population, etc.
I see in an explanation to another question posted here, Melody said that "the principle illustrates people with power who make a decision because it pleases them and it ends up being bad for the whole." But to me this seems super general and I never got “bad for the whole” from the question stem, but focused on the profitability/gain for the company itself.
Please further explain the clues I should have picked up on and why A is incorrect.
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Thanks for the question! So let’s walk through this passage real quick. We’re told about computer experts who are supposed to allocate funds for new hardware and software for a company. But the experts like cutting-edge technologies since they’re exciting, even though they’re expensive, have bugs, and aren’t super profitable.
Now we’re asked for what conforms most closely to the principle illustrated by the situation above. Well, what’s the principle going on here? The general idea seems to be that these people are choosing what they like more subjectively, even though there might objectively be another better choice out there.
So now what does this? Well, take a look at (C), which says that librarians pick books they like, and not books that would serve the community’s interests (and thus are “objectively” better). Well, that sounds pretty close to the principle we just described, and (C) is the correct answer here.
(A), on the other hand, tells us about senior executives who choose to promote junior executives, and how they favor those who share their professional interests and not those who have had the most education. But the problem with (A) is that we can’t say which is objectively better between “shared professional interests” vs “education.” Sure, someone might have a PhD in some unrelated field, but it could still make more sense overall to promote the person who knows more about the field. Because of that, (A) is incorrect.
Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.
