Hacker News Reader

There is truly and honestly a crab mentality going on, and it's because of guys like this. Personally, I'm getting tired of all this raging against the stereotype. What if some of us actually like math? What if some of us actually like coding all day? I often get the impression that past school, it is no longer acceptable to overachieve. Corporate America will do just fine.

Is the Tiger Mom thing a problem? Yes. But this is not the answer.

View on HN

The issue is when your parents and peers judge you based on your math and earning/technical abilities not because they actually enjoy intrinsically math or coding - but for what they stand for symbolically in the Asian American community, tokens you collect so you could get into MIT or get a six-figure job in Corporate America.

Late-night hacking marathons is very different from cramming SAT test exams because of the external pressure imposed by your parents to get their approval. Hacking up a machine learning project is very different from slaving away at your cubicle coding up an accounting module because you need to meet a benchmark to make a certain amount of money to be deemed "normal."

Not to mention wider society - it's difficult to countersignal that you are intrinsically driven.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com