Come on guys, this is 2013 and not 2005. There are tons of product startups in Delhi/Bangalore/Pune/Chennai. If you don't find one that works for you, start one on your own.
Sure India isn't the US or Israel. But neither is it the India of 10 years back. Carpe diem!
Maturity has differing definitions in the East compared to the West and personally I think it's a little unfair to make comparisons. What's considered mature in the west can often be considered immature in the east. The youth that belong to ethnic minorities in the west often under go major identity crises, and takes them a very long time to come to terms with it.
Yes, we're in 2013 and there are great start-ups in India, but I'll be the first to tell you these are still huge exceptions to the rule. Things are starting to change, definitely and things are starting to move, but it's still going to take time.
You cannot begin to imagine the pressure young easterners face from their parents and their families to live to the ideals of their parents and extended families. I live in the UK, I could give you over 20 examples of my own life that held me back - Now i've learned to ignore those pressures and am taking corrective action, but believe me it's not easy.
I could give you over a 100 examples of others. Even when living within the West, ethnic minorities have huge pressures from the sub-culture.
It's never good to blame anything or anyone - that I agree with, but to suggest that it's easy to overcome the cultural obstacles would be an unfair statement.
Yet in a world that is being "eaten by software", if young, educated and ambitious software developers are bemoaning centuries-old practices for their inability to take risks, the blame lies closer than they think.
If they can't handle the heat, they shouldn't be in the kitchen. Get a safe, salaried job and shut up. Else cope with it. Society isn't going to change overnight, so stop moaning about it.
I'm sorry if I sound harsh but I'm been seeing more than a few of these whiny posts on HN lately.
I don't disagree for a second that the only person responsible for their success or lack thereof is that person themselves, but to get to that realisation takes those in the eastern culture much longer. The weight of the emotional baggage is huge.
No Eric Ries, Tim Ferriss or any other 'Start-up Celebrity' is even mentioning it, because it's not even on their radar. If there had been a movement such as the Lean Start-Up movement that had addressed this problem, then those in the East would have recognised this issue much sooner and done something about it. We've had to do this all on our own.
If you haven't experienced it for yourself personally, then taking a stance such as the above is presumptious - and it's not your statement of the facts that perturbs me, it's your lack of empathy.
Edit: Spelling/Grammar
Um, the whole point of the post is to blame those three reasons - all external, societal or environmental - for personal decisions that educated and young programmers don't make.
If you're mature, you're able to define maturity and your life goals yourself independently from "the pressure young easterners face from their parents and their families to live to the ideals of their parents and extended families". If you can't - then it's simple, you're not mature yet.
Would you say Prince William lacks maturity because he has to uphold royal values even though at times he may feel it gets a bit too much? Does that make him immature?
He could also choose not to uphold royal values and choose to have a completely different life (as for example, Edward VIII) - and it is entirely his choice to make.
Being a disobedient rebel is an option - and often harder, as family support is very useful and wanted; However, it is orthogonal to maturity.
I'd define maturity as the ability to know if you'd be happier while fitting in your social ties or 'rebelling', and doing so. I'd define immaturity as rashly accepting any of those options without understanding what you are - blindly obeying elders against your own morals would be immature; and regretted rebellion out of spite is clearly also immature.
> Why do Indian devs feel compelled to blame their parents,
> families, wives, society for everything?
Related: I found this comment[1] on the blog post highly amusing:
> Dude!! If only there was some way I could pass this on to my parents and aunts! I’ll send you their email addresses, can you please email them the link to this page?
[1]: http://abhinavsahai.com/flat-marriage-and-family-3-reasons-w...