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I could be a tech entrepreneur. But my parents allowed me to spend the night. I could be a billionaire But I used to watch Saturday morning cartoons. I might be a loner Ramaswamy did. If it weren’t for the fact that I was corrupted by mediocre American culture. I feel sad when I think of an idle, miserable life that was not Ramavāmi’s.
These laments stem from statements made by Ramaswamy, the famous cultural critic. It came out on X on Thursday. He is explaining why tech companies prefer to hire foreign and first-generation engineers instead of native-born Americans: It has to do with American culture at its most prosaic.
“A culture that honors prom queens over math Olympiad champions. or praising a wise man It will not produce the best engineers,” he said. notice– Then he laid out his vision for how America needs to change: “More movies like Whiplash, fewer showings of ‘Friends,’ more teaching math. Less sleepovers More weekend science competitions There are fewer Saturday morning cartoons. More books, less TV, more creativity, less ‘chillin’, more extracurricular activities. Less ‘hanging out at the mall’.”
In other words Ramaswamy has decided to run Donald’s re-election bid. Trump is an opportunity to destroy us once and for all. No, I can’t finish studying before midnight! Put that violin under your chin now! No, your SAT score of 1540 is not good enough!
The voices you hear are immigrant parents across America cheering and clapping.
Perhaps Ramaswamy’s letter hit me so hard because I grew up in that kind of family. My grandfather, who went to study at the tuition-free City College of New York and went to work in America as a lawyer. It impressed me with such a hasty immigrant attitude. He told me that we might be outsiders. But we’ll grind, we’ll go to work, we’ll climb that greasy pole.
But it never happened for me. I’ve never written a line of code. Unlike Ramaswamy, I have never started a non-profitable biotech company. What can I say? I’m obsessed with the sleepover lifestyle. Both arguing about pillows Discussing guitar solos with a fellow 9th grader for a long time, I thought Saturday morning Bugs Bunny cartoons were harmless. But I soon got into the hard stuff: Road Runner, Scooby-Doo, and worse, much worse.
As time passes I also have some additional thoughts about Ramaswamy’s little sermon. It occurred to me that he might not be entirely correct about everything. For example, he described a country awash with laziness. But America has the strongest economy in the world. American workers are among the most productive. And in the past few years American productivity has soared. In the past decade American workers have continued to shift from low-skilled to higher-skilled jobs. Clearly, our mediocrity shows up everywhere except in economic data.
Then I started to wonder if our culture was really as hostile to nerds as he implied. which is a culture that makes The Big Bang Theory on our TV screens and Social networks in the movie theater Haven’t we spent years raising Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Sam Altman? Today, millions of young men live up to the Joe Rogan–Lex Friedman–Andrew social ideals. Huberman—the smart and curious tech bro. That says a lot about the amount of protein they are eating. And it looks like they just swallowed a weight machine. When we think about the major failings of American culture, Is it true that we don’t spend enough time evaluating the computer science major at Stanford?
Then I had more profound doubts about Ramaswamy’s arguments. First of all, he probably doesn’t understand anything. thinking It is. He seems to believe that the only type of thinking that matters is solving mathematical sets. But one reason we developed these big brains of ours is So that we can live together as a group. and able to explore the social landscape The hardest intellectual challenges often involve understanding others. If Ramaswamy wants young people to do things that require knowledge and understanding, He shouldn’t have sent her to the math teacher. He should send her to spend the night with another group of 12-year-old girls. That is intellectually demanding.
Second, it may be that Ramaswamy doesn’t understand what makes America great. We will not compete with China through rote learning and overwhelming test-taking. We are not successful just because of the first generation of strivers. That is based on the principle of working 70 hours a week and creating a life for the family. We also thrive because of successive generations. Come live in a culture of pluralism and courage. America is a place where people from all over the world come together in one chaotic unity. America was settled by people willing to venture into the unknown. and are willing to work in areas where the rules have not yet been written. As Covid has revealed once again We are not experts in compliance and regulations. But we have a keen sense of dynamism. Creativity and innovation
Third, I’m not sure Ramaswamy understands what drove Trump into office. Trump was elected in large part by non-college graduates. whose highest abilities were expressed in mostly non-academic ways, such as repairing engines, growing crops, caring for the dying. Perhaps Ramaswamy celebrated the skills of people who did not join him. at Harvard and Yale Instead of discarding them like lard. Which part of the word populism Doesn’t he understand?
most important Perhaps Ramaswamy did not understand how to motivate people. He seems to think you create ambitious people by acting like a drill sergeant: stay strong, set the rules, offer carrots when they succeed. and smashed it with a stick when it failed.
But as Daniel Pink writes in his book, driveThese extrinsic reward systems are effective motivational techniques only when the task in front of people is boring, routine, and technical. When creativity and originality are required The best way to motivate people is to help them discover what they inherently enjoy doing. Then empower them to do it obsessively. External reward systems do not tend to stimulate intrinsic motivation. They tend to conceal them.
Don’t crush your kids until they turn into worker drones. Help them excel in their free time.
Today when we hear the word spare timeWe often think of relaxation. We live in an atmosphere of what the theologian Josef Pieper called “total work.” We define free time as time not worked. Pausing in life helps us recharge so we can get back to what really matters: work.
But for centuries people have thought about leisure in a very different way: we spend part of our lives in idleness. They believe without doing anything. We spend part of our lives enjoying entertainment. Enjoying the little pleasures that distract us. We spend part of our lives working. Doing the unpleasant things that we have to do to earn a living. But then we spend part of our time relaxing.
Properly thought relaxation is a state of mind. It’s about doing what we like to do. For you it might be gardening, coding or learning. It is driven by enthusiasm. wonder enjoyment natural interest They are all motivated from within. When we say something is a labor of love that is rest When we see someone in a state of flow That’s the word relaxation. school come from schoolWhich is Greek for “relaxation.” School is supposed to be a place of rest. It is the most intense activity of human beings. An active and joyful quest for understanding.
Nose-to-stone culture Ramaswamy promotes rest. It took a lot of free time to discover what we really liked to do. We tend to stumble when we’re just joking and being curious in times when no one is telling us what to do. The Tiger Mother mentality views free time as a waste of time, like “hanging out at the mall.”
A life of leisure requires a great deal of independence. People are most engaged when they lead their own learning journey. You cannot create a life of leisure. When your mental energy is consumed by a thousand tasks and hoops to jump through.
Leisure life also requires mental play. We certainly use valuable cognitive styles when we troubleshoot problems or fill out HR forms. But many periods of creative development involve looser forms of awareness. That’s when you just follow your instincts and make strange connections. When your mind is free enough to see things in a new way, ninety-nine percent of our thinking is unconscious. Free time is a dance between conscious and unconscious processes.
Ramaswami’s story tells of hungry immigrants and lazy natives. That story resonates. America’s vitality has been fueled by waves of immigration. And there are some signs that America is becoming less agile and less agile. But after considering I think he’s mostly wrong about how to fix American culture. And he definitely won’t be invited to my next sleepover.
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