3 ms·

According to this logic, shouldn't kids from Kansas or Iowa do way better in math? I'm Chinese myself, and I think there might be a simpler reason. Our schools

by blader 18y ago

According to this logic, shouldn't kids from Kansas or Iowa do way better in math? I'm Chinese myself, and I think there might be a simpler reason. Our schools public schools are way tougher. I'm talking 7 am to 5 pm, non stop learning hard. We're talking about doing trig in the sixth grade and calculus in middle school. Those are the kinds of schools our parents went to and those are the kinds of schools they send their kids to. Instead of soccer practice or baseball games we take more math classes. Also explains why we tend to suck at sports. From my experience the difference in ability stems more from culture than from genetics.

walterk 18y ago
> From my experience the difference in ability stems more from culture than from genetics. This is actually his point: the chapter from which this excerpt is taken is from the second half of the book, which is all about how our behavior (and thus our performance) is profoundly influenced by our cultural heritage. There's a great chapter, for instance, on how cultural differences regarding deference to authority resulted in Korean Air's high crash rate in the 90's. There's no mention of the rice paddies in this excerpt, but Gladwell argues that rice paddy cultivation was considerably more complex and required considerably more labor than typical farming practices in the West, a long history of which resulted in a culture of persistence. (Which might explain just why Asian public schools are way tougher.)
- blader 18y ago
  Guess I should have read the OP - you caught me - tl;dr
kajecounterhack 18y ago
Actually, we tend to suck at sports because we're shorter in stature and we're slower at building certain muscles. I would know. We have like what, 50 guys on my school's cross country team. 40 are Asian, but 5/10 of the caucasian guys to the best out of the 50. They get injured less, even if they aren't as good early on for some strange reason. They also improve faster. Though you have to admit, with all that video game playing, it's no small wonder that asians are pretty decent at baseball.

by blader 18y ago

walterk 18y ago

> From my experience the difference in ability stems more from culture than from genetics. This is actually his point: the chapter from which this excerpt is taken is from the second half of the book, which is all about how our behavior (and thus our performance) is profoundly influenced by our cultural heritage. There's a great chapter, for instance, on how cultural differences regarding deference to authority resulted in Korean Air's high crash rate in the 90's. There's no mention of the rice paddies in this excerpt, but Gladwell argues that rice paddy cultivation was considerably more complex and required considerably more labor than typical farming practices in the West, a long history of which resulted in a culture of persistence. (Which might explain just why Asian public schools are way tougher.)

blader 18y ago
Guess I should have read the OP - you caught me - tl;dr

kajecounterhack 18y ago

Actually, we tend to suck at sports because we're shorter in stature and we're slower at building certain muscles. I would know. We have like what, 50 guys on my school's cross country team. 40 are Asian, but 5/10 of the caucasian guys to the best out of the 50. They get injured less, even if they aren't as good early on for some strange reason. They also improve faster. Though you have to admit, with all that video game playing, it's no small wonder that asians are pretty decent at baseball.