4 ms·

I felt this way about the entire United States when I moved here from Europe. The standard stance in the UK is cynical, dry, and too-cool-for-school. Try-hards

I felt this way about the entire United States when I moved here from Europe. The standard stance in the UK is cynical, dry, and too-cool-for-school. Try-hards are despised. The US was different and very refreshing. Enthusiasm and optimism can be expressed without embarrassment, and having a too-frequently-cynical stance is looked down on. I felt a step change again moving from academia to industry, but perhaps it goes a step too far. Sometimes I feel like thoughtful analysis is suppressed in favor of active thrash, because the former smells like bad-valence skepticism and the latter approved optimism.

ljw1004 4y ago
I felt exactly the same. Silicon valley attitude "woah dude that's awesome". UK fenland attitude "don't get your hopes up and know your place".
nivenkos 4y ago
On the other hand, I found US engineers were way more likely to try to exaggerate their own work and push for promotion, etc. whereas the EU had more team solidarity. Like working with US engineers there was one who deliberately put meetings at bad hours (time zone difference), or would "accidentally" send the invite to your pager email instead, etc. to make others look bad.
nickd2001 4y ago
I found similar going from UK to USA - can-do positive attitude, enthusiasm is appreciated. (This was private sector). This was 20 yrs ago though. Having returned to UK I think its got better here at least in tech. Also if you take a (slightly tempered, not in-ya-face) US attitude back to UK , in the right workplaces this goes down well because people actually like positive enthusiastic colleagues. In the UK it can be hard though getting managers to not see this as a threat. When I first returned the American pro-active attitude I think caused me to bomb an interview because I (innocently and tactfully at least I hoped ;) ) asked what reason they were using technology X and had they considered Y , which I think they took as a threat, someone who'd be insubordinate whereas in the US they'd more likely go "good question!" and be glad someone cared enough to ask (at least in my experience). I behaved the same the following week when interviewing at a startup and naturally, got that job. ;) Since then I think I adjusted to balance being pro-active with careful not to rock the political boat. American positivity has to be seen to be believed. ;). When in the US I was both impressed by people's ability to stay positive in the face of very difficult challenges, but slightly bemused by the amount of unfair s** people would silently put up with too e:g in customer service jobs. ;)

ljw1004 4y ago

I felt exactly the same. Silicon valley attitude "woah dude that's awesome". UK fenland attitude "don't get your hopes up and know your place".

nivenkos 4y ago

On the other hand, I found US engineers were way more likely to try to exaggerate their own work and push for promotion, etc. whereas the EU had more team solidarity. Like working with US engineers there was one who deliberately put meetings at bad hours (time zone difference), or would "accidentally" send the invite to your pager email instead, etc. to make others look bad.

nickd2001 4y ago

I found similar going from UK to USA - can-do positive attitude, enthusiasm is appreciated. (This was private sector). This was 20 yrs ago though. Having returned to UK I think its got better here at least in tech. Also if you take a (slightly tempered, not in-ya-face) US attitude back to UK , in the right workplaces this goes down well because people actually like positive enthusiastic colleagues. In the UK it can be hard though getting managers to not see this as a threat. When I first returned the American pro-active attitude I think caused me to bomb an interview because I (innocently and tactfully at least I hoped ;) ) asked what reason they were using technology X and had they considered Y , which I think they took as a threat, someone who'd be insubordinate whereas in the US they'd more likely go "good question!" and be glad someone cared enough to ask (at least in my experience). I behaved the same the following week when interviewing at a startup and naturally, got that job. ;) Since then I think I adjusted to balance being pro-active with careful not to rock the political boat. American positivity has to be seen to be believed. ;). When in the US I was both impressed by people's ability to stay positive in the face of very difficult challenges, but slightly bemused by the amount of unfair s** people would silently put up with too e:g in customer service jobs. ;)