Comment by spiderPig | Hacker News Reader

Comment by spiderPig | Hacker News Reader

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Very well articulated.

I'm a kid who came over to the US for higher studies. All these problems are deep-rooted in our culture. The culture doesn't encourage innovation and curiosity is shunned in most of the schools. Kids get into this rat race of scoring high grades without even realizing it.

(I'm going to go off on a tangential rant here onward):

Sadly, it looks like most of us are proud of it. And the ones who come over to the US are bringing this culture over with them. I was a TA in a top 10 university for a Compilers course and the number of these purportedly 'smart' kids that you could observe the Dunning-Kruger effect on was laughable. Most of them were frankly deluded into thinking they were these amazing engineers. Their primary goal was to get a job at Microsoft/Google/Amazon. None of them had the curiosity to find out how a compiler actually worked. They just did the bare-minimum necessary to get a good grade. And not surprisingly almost all the students I busted for cheating were Indians.

My plea to the kids coming over to the US at the risk of sounding unpopular: You're culture has failed you. Our culture doesn't encourage scientific thought and reeks ignorance. Please leave that behind with you.

Understand, observe and get inspired by the great scientific culture the Americans have built here. Let's not ruin that.

>> Understand, observe and get inspired by the great scientific culture the Americans have built here. Let's not ruin that.

Say that in India, and some guys will fly into a rage and say: 1) All the great scientists in America came from other countries, so many are Indians 2) We had levitating Mars-visiting Rushis before Neil Armstrong ever "supposedly" landed on the moon. 3) The Europeans lived in filth while we had an advanced civilization in the middle ages. Therefore we are inherently better.

Of course you WOULD fly into a rage if you could never leave and establish yourself in a more "luxurious" country that "isn't your own". Until then, for the sake of your own sanity, you have to believe there's nothing wrong with your country and that you weren't failed.

I've definitely met those types of Indians, for whom a job at a big company is the holy grail, and the majority of them come from a position of financial insecurity.

On the other hand I've met others who have a much more scientific bent, so I don't think its "Indian culture" that forces people to be anti-innovation.

It's the conservative strain of Indian thought which naturally dominates the brains of people raised in financially insecure conditions. Poverty breeds materialism.

> The culture doesn't encourage innovation and curiosity is shunned in most of the schools. Kids get into this rat race of scoring high grades without even realizing it.

I'm not trying to take anything from what you're saying, but my experience is that applies just as well to US school (high school, at least.)

If we continue slashing arts, music, woodshop etc. in favor of more AP classes you'd end up being somewhat right, but still, you have no idea the difference in education quality

Having been to both places - the similarity may be there, but America has just started on the path of wiping out the ability to think from its children.

We've been 'teaching the test' for decades now. No child left behind has just started for you in comparison.

The Indian education system is busy creating mental athletes who are literate, but incapable of actually working outside of their experience set - essentially training fencers instead of fighters.

Your problem with the culture is the problem with almost every culture of the world( including USA). The "great scientific culture" of USA is to lure the smart people all around world. "And not surprisingly almost all the students I busted for cheating were Indians"- on side note, my personal observation is Indians are extreme harsh on other Indians if the first one is part of system. I actively avoid immigration line checked by Indian looking staff whenever going to USA or UK.

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