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> Since I'm in the tech bubble, everyone else I hang out with is quite well to do and smart, but any time I've met people outside of this bubble I feel depressed and sad.

So what? You hang out with allegedly smart people, we produce a lot of them, some even provide the world with more utility then working at a FAANG. What point are you trying to make? Are you suggesting there are no unambitious people in Asia?

We have a lot going for us too - our political system relies on institutions, not personalities. We still have the best of everything. Corruption and Nepotism is minimal - your family surname doesn't matter (you are a self-proclaimed example of this). The cream more easily rises to the top.

> I honestly believe that China, India, and other Asian countries will dominate the next century and beyond. They're pumping out engineers (people who can think, use their brain) while Americans talk shit about themselves and want to degrade.

"Pumping out" is the key phrase here.

> I can't help but realize that most people I meet outside of tech are... how do I say this? Not that bright? I'm talking people who can't add small numbers or multiply, and seem to have short term goals and interests.

I thought that way when I was younger, judging people by the skills I excelled at. Not only was I mistaken but the attitude was damaging to myself and others.

Unskilled and unaware is a thing: it takes wisdom, maturity and focus to learn to recognise the excess talents and abilities of others in areas that oneself is weak in. Looking at myself and understanding where I have an IQ of 60 is painful, but necessary.

Oddly enough, the more I look for talents in the people I know, the more I see the excess talents of other people: especially soft-skills and non-scholastic skills. We all have a lot to learn. The smartest people I know recognise they are dumb in significant areas of their lives. The stupid people I know can be snowflakes: often overconfident and often overvalue their profession.

Globalization has favored migration, and this is built in to your background: ergo, "these people are not smart and don't work hard like I did...so I should exit" is your first inclination. It's a very common sentiment through America that somewhere else can be escaped to, that there's a new frontier to homestead.

But... I have been through California's most competitive schools. The ones in which everyone grubbed for grades, and therefore pursued exactly what you are romanticizing. Yeah, you get some education, but the course material mattered very little. All the serious challenges that have left an impression decades on were presented by other life events like kids who commit suicide(an occurrence that is depressingly frequent at those competitive schools). I do not think of myself as a winner, but a survivor. The moments where genuine flourishing took place are likewise things that were not really about the school system or what my parents did, but the whole confluence of factors.

California - as a society - is, in fact, facing and working through those challenges of how to make its society work without relying on exit, because exit simply means others get dumped on. Making it a place worth living in is not about working hard, or voting in the right government, but about answering all the ethical questions involved in creating that society with clarity and intellectual honesty, one day and one incident at a time. The parlor tricks necessary to earn a tech salary and then uproot oneself are simple stuff in comparison.

And Asia is not gaining in terms of competitiveness: it's gotten wealthier and older too, and it has started having the same kinds of issues, of younger Japanese going "hikkikomori" or Chinese workers "lying flat".

If China and India are going to be so great, why aren’t they so great already? Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Korea all industrialized faster and have a higher standard of living - all did it in the 1980s - 40 years ago.

Those countries had been laying the foundations since WWII. China didn't get going until after Mao's death in 1976.

India got independence in 1947... from the British Empire.

USA has been independent since 1776.

And notice I said "century". Were you educated in America?

So what if you said century. Time doesn’t stop for other countries. They’ll continue to progress, unless they become like Hong Kong and China takes them over - which is another clue for you to ignore.

No I wasn’t educated in America, not do I live there. You’re moving to personal attacks because you have nothing else.

I said "they will dominate the next century" which means you misread what I wrote and asked something about now.

Its not my fault your reading comprehension sucks.

According to the world bank China lifted 800m people above the poverty line in 30-40 years. Let that figure sink in for a minute.

It only took decades of communist oppresion and engineered famines and forced abortions and slave labor camps to get there! I know, I know, details.

HK, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Taiwan all add up to 200m.

HK, Singapore: City states with (relatively) tiny populations. Acted as capitalist hubs/entry points to larger economies (PRC, Malayasia, SE Asia etc).

Japan, Korea, Taiwan: Massive financial aid from the west, favorable trade deals for being strategic allies of the west.

This isn’t to say that the people in these countries didn’t work to get where they are; they could have absolutely fucked it up. But it’s important to understand structural reasons for why some countries develop faster than the others.

Upto the late 18th century, South + East asia were absolutely the dominant economic powers of the world accounting for over 50% of the worlds GDP. Colonialism was a huge setback but both China and India (+ other South/East Asian nations like Bangladesh) are rapidly industrializing.

Singapore aside, they all did it under authoritarian governance with massive US/western support at peak of US hegemony as essential vassals. They played great on easy mode. VS PRC which was sanctioned/contained by west, India less so but never the less got fucked with but held back by messy democracy that can't put together an industrial policy. And great is relative, high gdp / standard of living is great for citizens, and ultimately that matters a lot. But a country in terms of comprehensive power can be "great" via modest income and sheer scale, i.e. PRC who developed indigenous military, space, nuclear program (all while sanctioned) and essentially every industrial sector has much more comprehensive power than a Asian Tiger that's dependent on US protection and got US credit card for basically playing part in coldwar PRC containment. PRC generally industrialized faster than any of these countries after detente, through much more sectors, but simply have too many people to ever reach parity per capita income. PRC is doing well on hard mode. Not to mention US aligned authoritarian petro states like Qatar, UAE, somewhat Brunai also do much better than the Asian Tigers. At end of day, being small/medium size country under US patronage get rich. Being authoritarian helps, being a resource based economy helps more. But geopolitically, "greatness" extends to more domains than just standard of living. Otherwise, UAE is greater than US. Except they're obviously not.

Based on my experience in the valley, there are many extremely bright folks in tech who have failed miserably at achieving happiness, beyond a short term, insecure feeling of superiority when they win a small battle in life. The overarching theme I encounter is unhappiness. Those aren't the type of people who build thriving societies. They're the type of folks who miss the forest for the trees and end up deeply unhappy with every aspect of their lives beyond their careers.

For me, the contrast is most obvious when looking at Southern California vs the Bay Area. People are noticably less happy in the Bay Area. It's nothing like life among the "happy idiots" of SoCal.

Whatever you do, I hope you find satisfaction in life and teach your children to achieve the same.

> being the poorest kid in school had its downsides

What was it like ? Just genuinely curious. I am an immigrant and a parent. We live in good school district, but we're not wealthy. Just want to learn from your experience, so I could understand what my kids might/will have to go through at school.

>> I honestly believe that China, India, and other Asian countries will dominate the next century and beyond.

Before they do that, they'll have to solve similar problems the US is facing right now in terms of inequality. In fact they are running into these issues even now.

However there is one major difference that India and China have to contend with which would be a big problem. And that is scale - the very thing that propels their growth will be a major obstacle. It is one thing to have inequality in a country of 300M, it is another to have to contend with 500M+ disgruntled citizens.

And sadly, looking at the state of affairs, I am not sure if the leadership of both the countries are equipped/want to deal with it.

> The USA needs to stop treating children like equals/adults (they're not, their brains are still developing) and focus on making sure their kids can think their way out of a box instead of crying or needing therapy (just stop giving them iPad games since they're 2 years old to make them shut up). We need to get off this addiction to instant gratification - that leads to mental retardation because when people don't have to think of alternatives or creative ways to do things, MOST people will just be lazy. We've proven this in animals, and we see it every day with people.

What a complete load of horseshit.

The US is at the forefront of dealing with the realities involved with living in an information-centered society. Therapy and a broader recognition of mental health issues as being significant are incredibly useful ideas that are helping society deal with the problems that come with this new age. Raising kids as being autonomous and having identities independent of their parents is absolutely the correct way of recognizing them as people and not just parent’s little helpers or minions.

There is legitimate criticism to be made of a society addicted to social media and swimming in disinformation. But both the criticism and the remedies suggested in this comment are complete nonsense and would do little to alleviate the situation. If your solution is “sterner parenting” you are simply going to have more rebellious kids who end up doing even worse things… we have been down this path before.