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Wadhwa says "Indian and Chinese engineers and scientists are often national heroes. Here, our kids idolize football players and rock stars." Yesterday, I had

by credo 17y ago

Wadhwa says "Indian and Chinese engineers and scientists are often national heroes. Here, our kids idolize football players and rock stars." Yesterday, I had replied to Wadhwa's tweet saying that he was mistaken in this comparison. In India, cricket players and movie stars are adored and idolized. OTH most Indians wouldn't even be able to name the top scientists/engineers in the country (let alone idolize them). I think Wadhwa is pointing to a genuine issue (of rock stars and football players being more popular than engineers or scientists), but making bogus claims to raise fear (of Indian or Chinese competition) isn't the right way to address this issue - especially when it should be clear that India is very much alike the US in this respect (though it is "cricket player" instead of "football player" ...)

zaidf 17y ago
US kids don't idolize football players as much as they idolize cops and firefighters. Adoring stars is something found in almost every country. It isn't what differentiates India and US: we both have stars that we worship. What matters is coming down many notches at the everyday job level. What kind of everyday jobs do we(media, textbooks) idolize most? In the US, its firefighters and cops. In India, it's engineers and doctors.
code_devil 17y ago
I think Wadhwa is correct. I noticed the same since I moved here in 2001 as an Undergrad for CS. - Indians in India do enjoy(or say Worship) Cricket, but out of a population of 1+ Billion ONLY 11 Indians make it to the International team and that's where all the money is (or atleast used to be since India started IPL since last year) - In the US, the population is way less and you have multiple sport avenues (Football, Basketball, Baseball, + many more) with multiple teams. So the success factor in pursuing a sports dream is more practical. And even if you don't reach the top, you can still find a descent job with a BS degree, assuming you completed. On the contrary, in India you are pretty much doomed if you put all your energies into sports and it does not pan out your way. The Ratio of the Number of Educated Population to the Number of Jobs is very high. The top scientists from BARC, ISRO are very well known are literally treated like national heroes. And so are the 11 cricketers from the Indian National Team. Most people don't know the name of Hockey Players(apparently our National Game), ... at the most only 1 person per sport (other sports) might be known by people. === I noted another point from the article. Craig Barret is very right when he says American Kids run after Interest and Indian's go more after the money. It's the same population and competition issue. If India had a 'normal' population, I am pretty sure many would have pursued their interest rather than the Success Formula ... Engineering (preferred IIT) + MBA (from IIM) = Nice Paying Job PS: In HS = You NEED to have Physics, Maths, Science to be eligible for Engineering School. This is the same as Freshman level material we do in colleges out here. Too be honest I think if you(most Indians) end up doing an MBA right after Engineering without any work experience, what is the whole point of slogging through Highschool to get into the Top Engineering Colleges to only end up being into Business School. And Yes, similarly applying to Grad School in US is another way to chase that dream and then apply for PhD. On the contrary my american friends in Undergrad here ONLY pursued a masters/phd if they had a genuine interest in it. Now with a lot of Immigrants coming, it's indirectly creating the same problem we have in India. Too many educated people, so more competition for the number of jobs and hence people born here might also have to someday stop focusing on their dreams(sports, music, etc whatever it be) and live in a cut throat environment making sure they have a job, which is really sad.
- credo 17y ago
  >>The top scientists from BARC, ISRO are very well known are literally treated like national heroes. And so are the 11 cricketers from the Indian National Team. You must be kidding. This is obviously just an opinion (since I can't point to data), but I'd say that the number of people in India who know the name of a scientist at BARC or ISRO is a tiny fraction of the number of people who know Sachin Tendulkar (cricket) or Shahrukh Khan (movies) Cricketers and movie stars have millions of fans in India. I'd think that the average Indian wouldn't be able to name a single scientist currently working at ISRO or BARC

by credo 17y ago

zaidf 17y ago

US kids don't idolize football players as much as they idolize cops and firefighters. Adoring stars is something found in almost every country. It isn't what differentiates India and US: we both have stars that we worship. What matters is coming down many notches at the everyday job level. What kind of everyday jobs do we(media, textbooks) idolize most? In the US, its firefighters and cops. In India, it's engineers and doctors.

code_devil 17y ago

I think Wadhwa is correct. I noticed the same since I moved here in 2001 as an Undergrad for CS. - Indians in India do enjoy(or say Worship) Cricket, but out of a population of 1+ Billion ONLY 11 Indians make it to the International team and that's where all the money is (or atleast used to be since India started IPL since last year) - In the US, the population is way less and you have multiple sport avenues (Football, Basketball, Baseball, + many more) with multiple teams. So the success factor in pursuing a sports dream is more practical. And even if you don't reach the top, you can still find a descent job with a BS degree, assuming you completed. On the contrary, in India you are pretty much doomed if you put all your energies into sports and it does not pan out your way. The Ratio of the Number of Educated Population to the Number of Jobs is very high. The top scientists from BARC, ISRO are very well known are literally treated like national heroes. And so are the 11 cricketers from the Indian National Team. Most people don't know the name of Hockey Players(apparently our National Game), ... at the most only 1 person per sport (other sports) might be known by people. === I noted another point from the article. Craig Barret is very right when he says American Kids run after Interest and Indian's go more after the money. It's the same population and competition issue. If India had a 'normal' population, I am pretty sure many would have pursued their interest rather than the Success Formula ... Engineering (preferred IIT) + MBA (from IIM) = Nice Paying Job PS: In HS = You NEED to have Physics, Maths, Science to be eligible for Engineering School. This is the same as Freshman level material we do in colleges out here. Too be honest I think if you(most Indians) end up doing an MBA right after Engineering without any work experience, what is the whole point of slogging through Highschool to get into the Top Engineering Colleges to only end up being into Business School. And Yes, similarly applying to Grad School in US is another way to chase that dream and then apply for PhD. On the contrary my american friends in Undergrad here ONLY pursued a masters/phd if they had a genuine interest in it. Now with a lot of Immigrants coming, it's indirectly creating the same problem we have in India. Too many educated people, so more competition for the number of jobs and hence people born here might also have to someday stop focusing on their dreams(sports, music, etc whatever it be) and live in a cut throat environment making sure they have a job, which is really sad.

credo 17y ago
>>The top scientists from BARC, ISRO are very well known are literally treated like national heroes. And so are the 11 cricketers from the Indian National Team. You must be kidding. This is obviously just an opinion (since I can't point to data), but I'd say that the number of people in India who know the name of a scientist at BARC or ISRO is a tiny fraction of the number of people who know Sachin Tendulkar (cricket) or Shahrukh Khan (movies) Cricketers and movie stars have millions of fans in India. I'd think that the average Indian wouldn't be able to name a single scientist currently working at ISRO or BARC