4 ms·

This sounds like a real cross-cultural mismatch, but it’s doing too much work with nationality alone. In a lot of Indian (and broader South Asian) work contexts

by nelox 9mo ago

This sounds like a real cross-cultural mismatch, but it’s doing too much work with nationality alone. In a lot of Indian (and broader South Asian) work contexts, questioning instructions can be read as challenging authority or admitting incompetence, so people default to executing without asking. That’s often reinforced by education systems and contractor dynamics where producing something quickly feels safer than pausing to clarify. Add in time zones, language friction, and fear of losing work, and "just run with it" becomes a rational strategy. Meanwhile, many Western workplaces treat clarification and check-ins as professionalism, so the behavior reads as strange or careless. The key point is that this usually isn’t lack of curiosity or reflection, but risk management under different norms. The pattern often disappears once expectations are explicit: ask questions, check back, iteration is expected.

4gotunameagain 9mo ago
To add to that, it is culturally acceptable and even lauded in India to achieve something by "gaming the system", something usually considered unethical in the west (okay maybe less so in the US). I would be ashamed to submit an AI slop PR or vulnerability report. An indian might just say "I have 25 merged PRs in open source projects"
- throwaway85825 9mo ago
  Term for this is "chalaki"
  - deleted 9mo ago
    [deleted]
kordlessagain 9mo ago
> questioning instructions can be read as challenging authority or admitting incompetence, so people default to executing without asking That’s ego, assuming doing is the value, not doing RIGHT. Doing alone has almost zero value.
- catlifeonmars 9mo ago
  It’s how not to get fired, ostracized, etc. I don’t understand how you read that as ego.
- throwaway85825 9mo ago
  [flagged]
- cookiengineer 9mo ago
  > That’s ego, assuming doing is the value, not doing RIGHT. No. That's lack of labor protection laws and the effect that this causes on how companies are run.
- Sharlin 9mo ago
  Way to be culturally blind.
ekidd 9mo ago
Yeah, I agree, the time zones are killer, and this can't be ignored. I work at a company spread over most of the world, with SMEs coming and going as the globe spins. Back-and-forth iteration and consultation is a genuinely hard problem. Certain kinds of feedback cycles have a minimum latency of "overnight". Which means we need to invest heavily in good communication. But also, it means more people need to have the "big picture", and they need to be able to make good decisions (not just arbitrary ones). So the ideal goal is to prevent people from going off in random nonsensical directions based on miscommunication, and equip them to actually think strategically about the overall plan. Continent X might make different decisions than continent Y, but they're all talking, and enough people see the goal. A lot of the international teams I've seen pull this off are ones where an Eastern European or Indian team is just another permanent part of the company, with broad-based professional expertise. Contractors on any continent are a whole different story. So I think what a lot of people try to blame on Indian management culture (or whatever) really is just a case of "we hired contractors in a different time zone." I mean, there are always cultural issues—Linus Torvalds came from a famously direct management culture, and many US managers tend to present criticism as a not-so-subtle "hint" in between two compliments—but professionals of intelligence and goodwill will figure all that out eventually.
- 3D30497420 9mo ago
  > the time zones are killer, and this can't be ignored 100% agree, especially when there is minimal overlap during normal office hours. I was managing a dev team in India from the US and it was a real challenge. The company ended up moving team to the US, relocating most of my team. Despite all the people being the same, management became much easier. Since then I've done US and EU, and EU and IN, and those have all worked fine because we had sufficient overlap during business hours.
  - nottorp 9mo ago
    If you needed 8 hour overlap you were micromanaging? Was that because of the above cultural differences?
    - 9mo ago
deleted 9mo ago
[deleted]
mgaunard 9mo ago
In my experience trying to outsource to India, there is a strong systemic bias towards lying and cheating to get ahead (and that was even before AI), and a focus on milking as much money as possible rather than building great technology. While there is real talent there, there is also a lot of overhead to find people you can trust. This is probably just a reflection of the competitive nature of the market and the social ladder tech salaries enable there.

by nelox 9mo ago

4gotunameagain 9mo ago

To add to that, it is culturally acceptable and even lauded in India to achieve something by "gaming the system", something usually considered unethical in the west (okay maybe less so in the US). I would be ashamed to submit an AI slop PR or vulnerability report. An indian might just say "I have 25 merged PRs in open source projects"

throwaway85825 9mo ago
Term for this is "chalaki"
- deleted 9mo ago
  [deleted]

kordlessagain 9mo ago

> questioning instructions can be read as challenging authority or admitting incompetence, so people default to executing without asking That’s ego, assuming doing is the value, not doing RIGHT. Doing alone has almost zero value.

catlifeonmars 9mo ago
It’s how not to get fired, ostracized, etc. I don’t understand how you read that as ego.
throwaway85825 9mo ago
[flagged]
cookiengineer 9mo ago
> That’s ego, assuming doing is the value, not doing RIGHT. No. That's lack of labor protection laws and the effect that this causes on how companies are run.
Sharlin 9mo ago
Way to be culturally blind.

ekidd 9mo ago

Yeah, I agree, the time zones are killer, and this can't be ignored. I work at a company spread over most of the world, with SMEs coming and going as the globe spins. Back-and-forth iteration and consultation is a genuinely hard problem. Certain kinds of feedback cycles have a minimum latency of "overnight". Which means we need to invest heavily in good communication. But also, it means more people need to have the "big picture", and they need to be able to make good decisions (not just arbitrary ones). So the ideal goal is to prevent people from going off in random nonsensical directions based on miscommunication, and equip them to actually think strategically about the overall plan. Continent X might make different decisions than continent Y, but they're all talking, and enough people see the goal. A lot of the international teams I've seen pull this off are ones where an Eastern European or Indian team is just another permanent part of the company, with broad-based professional expertise. Contractors on any continent are a whole different story. So I think what a lot of people try to blame on Indian management culture (or whatever) really is just a case of "we hired contractors in a different time zone." I mean, there are always cultural issues—Linus Torvalds came from a famously direct management culture, and many US managers tend to present criticism as a not-so-subtle "hint" in between two compliments—but professionals of intelligence and goodwill will figure all that out eventually.

3D30497420 9mo ago
> the time zones are killer, and this can't be ignored 100% agree, especially when there is minimal overlap during normal office hours. I was managing a dev team in India from the US and it was a real challenge. The company ended up moving team to the US, relocating most of my team. Despite all the people being the same, management became much easier. Since then I've done US and EU, and EU and IN, and those have all worked fine because we had sufficient overlap during business hours.
- nottorp 9mo ago
  If you needed 8 hour overlap you were micromanaging? Was that because of the above cultural differences?
  - 9mo ago

deleted 9mo ago

[deleted]

mgaunard 9mo ago

In my experience trying to outsource to India, there is a strong systemic bias towards lying and cheating to get ahead (and that was even before AI), and a focus on milking as much money as possible rather than building great technology. While there is real talent there, there is also a lot of overhead to find people you can trust. This is probably just a reflection of the competitive nature of the market and the social ladder tech salaries enable there.