The Long 2010s, Part 2: JFK vs. Jeffrey Wang

The idea for this essay came to me after I saw another boring round of discourse on Twitter kick off, this time about the difference between the McDonald’s branches of the 2000s, with their chintzy faux-wood paneling and their PlayPlaces, and the McDonald’s branches of the 2020s, with their austere slate-gray sidings and their PlayPlaces now demolished; the conclusion was that society has become more hostile to children, people are having less kids, etc. etc. Anyway, for whatever reason I started thinking about an essay that AI startup entrepreneur Jeffrey Wang had written about studying at McDonald’s, which he used to apply successfully to several elite universities like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton in 2014. Not too bad. Last year, Business Insider published a report about Wang and included the full text of his prizewinning essay, and it made the rounds on social media. I read it. My first thought was that admissions officers are morons. My second thought was that this essay was a per

The idea for this essay came to me after I saw another boring round of discourse on Twitter kick off, this time about the difference between the McDonald’s branches of the 2000s, with their chintzy faux-wood paneling and their PlayPlaces, and the McDonald’s branches of the 2020s, with their austere slate-gray sidings and their PlayPlaces now demolished; the conclusion was that society has become more hostile to children, people are having less kids, etc. etc. Anyway, for whatever reason I started thinking about an essay that AI startup entrepreneur Jeffrey Wang had written about studying at Mc