Cathedrals in the Sky
Thoughts on a New Meritocracy
A cathedral rises through the architect’s vision, the builder’s strength, and the artist’s grace—each shaping a structure that transcends its parts and uplifts all who enter.
(Inspired by The Pillars of the Earth)
Every once in a while I’m triggered by a story that comes across my feed. This was the case with David Brook’s recent discussion about the dark side of Meritocracy. So I let my mind wander into the clouds and imagined a cathedral that spoke to the power of collaboration.
Like cathedrals, our society thrives when all types of talent—academic, practical, and creative—work in harmony. Yet as David Brooks has recently argued, our meritocratic system has created a dangerous divide between those who are high-achieving academics and others whose wisdom and skills fall outside traditional education. He suggests that this divide is tearing society apart. Like a cathedral missing builders and artists, a meritocracy focused only on academic achievement risks crumbling under its own imbalance. True innovation requires collaboration across diverse talents.?
Having worked in both institutional and academic settings—from AT&T Labs Research to IBM, from NYU to Columbia University—I’ve witnessed how isolating academic achievement from practical and creative contributions limits innovation. While PhDs delve deeply into a specific area of expertise, it’s more important than ever that their thinking be mapped to human need. And this requires an interplay, not only between academics, but with creative and practical minds.
Consider a New Meritocracy, where society benefits from three types of thinkers working together—a “cathedral in the sky” with everyone bringing their best to the task:
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When the intellectual precision of architects, the practical know-how of builders, and the magic of artists combine, we achieve something greater than any single perspective could. Steve Jobs understood this balance, blending technical innovation, practical design, and artistic imagination to create products that redefined human experience. He succeeded because he valued design as much as technical innovation, blending all three ‘cathedral-building’ roles into Apple’s DNA.
After 9/11, I saw my colleagues at AT&T leave research to find new homes in the tech giants, creating the world-changing algorithms behind Search and AI. But these doors were all but closed to non-academics and creatives.?
Without a builders’ practical insights and an artists’ emotional resonance, Google Glass overlooked the social discomfort of wearable technology—this was akin to designing a cathedral without considering how light transforms its vast and inspiring space.
A more creative and empathetic approach could also have helped Facebook avoid its Emotional Contagion Study, a manipulative “sermon,” that resulted in public outrage.
And in another failure of human consideration, we now have AI plowing ahead in ways insensitive to the intellectual property of artists and writers—alienating the very people who have crafted the most meaningful resonant artistic works in the world.
I’m reminded of what happened when Disney moved its headquarters from the creative crucible that was Hyperion to its spanking-new, sprawling Burbank campus. Instead of aggregating the storytellers, animators, inkers, painters together in close proximity, they were divided into neatly-labelled, geographically-isolated buildings. The net result was a loss in the synergy that catalyzed the wildly creative Silly Symphonies—studies that informed all of Disney’s great animated works that followed.
In this new meritocracy, we can build these cathedrals—not just in imagination, but in our education systems, workplaces, and communities—creating a future that celebrates and unites the full spectrum of human ingenuity and talent.