What Happens to All the Asian-American Overachievers When the Test-Taking Ends? - http://nymag.com/news...
May 17, 2011
from
April Buchheit,
Dan Hsiao,
Sebastian Wain,
imabonehead,
John (bird whisperer),
A Mitchell,
AJ Kohn,
and
OUT ON A LIMB
liked this
"Hsieh didn’t have to conform to Western standards of comportment because he adopted early on the Western value of risk-taking. Growing up, he would play recordings of himself in the morning practicing the violin, in lieu of actually practicing. He credits the experience he had running a pizza business at Harvard as more important than anything he learned in class. He had an instinctive sense of what the real world would require of him, and he knew that nothing his parents were teaching him would get him there."
- Paul Buchheit
"It is a part of the bitter undercurrent of Asian-American life that meritocracy comes to an abrupt end after graduation."
- A Mitchell
Or more specifically, the "merit" of test-taking is not so highly valued outside of school.
- Paul Buchheit
The article’s characterization of Asian-Americans sounds vaguely similar to some job descriptions we might see for entry-level software engineers. In Asia.
More quotes from the article:
“The traits that got you to where you are won’t necessarily take you to the next level,” says the diversity consultant Jane Hyun, who wrote a book called Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling. To become a leader requires taking personal initiative and thinking about how an organization can work differently. It also requires networking, self-promotion, and self-assertion.
- A Mitchell