On the topic of success: (11 August 2025).

In this article, I will give my two cents on what I think about the idea of success, and I will do so by taking this December 2024 tweet by Vivek Ramasay and rebut against each points, as I think that’s far easier since you will have context over what people like him think and how they influence our perception as to what path to take on life.

> The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if we’re really serious about fixing the problem, we have to confront the TRUTH:

I find his authoritative stance and this emphasis on “the truth” to be noteworthy. The implication is he’s not giving his subjective view on the matter, but rather what he’s saying is concrete, and if you argue otherwise, you are either in disbelief or can’t handle facts and logic.

> Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG.

I agree.

> A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.

• Culture is not monolithic, there are various subcultures within where jocks are celebrated in their own space, and math Olympiads/valedictorians are celebrated in their own space. Nobody is being celebrated “over” another, they are getting their fair share of celebration in their own subculture.
• If the argument is mainstream society celebrates jocks more than nerds, this makes sense, a society cannot function without physical strength. History has shown how sophisticated cultures full of educated masses have been dismantled by unwashed barbarians who knew how to fight.
• I don’t know what a prom queen is, hence the lack of my attention towards it.

> A culture that venerates Cory from “Boy Meets World,” or Zach & Slater over Screech in “Saved by the Bell,” or ‘Stefan’ over Steve Urkel in “Family Matters,” will not produce the best engineers.

I don’t know what these films are, but I’ll take his word these films are mediocrity slop.

> (Fact: I know *multiple* sets of immigrant parents in the 90s who actively limited how much their kids could watch those TV shows precisely because they promoted mediocrity…and their kids went on to become wildly successful STEM graduates).

I agree, consuming content slop should be limited and parental responsibility needs to be emphasised, however most parents don’t know how to raise children (not because it’s new being a parent, but rather because simple ideas such as “don’t make your kid fear you” or “treat your kids how you want others to treat them, so they know the difference” is completely foreign to some). However, his solution is what I disagree with.

> More movies like Whiplash, fewer reruns of “Friends.” More math tutoring, fewer sleepovers. More weekend science competitions, fewer Saturday morning cartoons. More books, less TV. More creating, less “chillin.” More extracurriculars, less “hanging out at the mall.”

• Consume less slop on TV, and consume more slop on books. How many books are there that are worth reading? I agree that books are better than TV, and I do occasionally read books and learnt valuable knowledge (you can see my recommended readings here), but reading books for the sake of it means you’re going to be reading books that won’t benefit you at all.
• Forbid the weekends are a time for relaxation, you’re suggesting that kids must expend their energy and time competing against each other. If kids want to compete on their own initiative, they will do so.
• He says “less ‘hanging out at the mall’”. Is it okay for the kids to hang out at the park? Or in a café? What about travelling to the city? He thinks he’s so sly, using “the mall” as an example, because teenagers hanging out in shopping centres sounds like a waste of time since they’re not usually buying anything there. Let people waste their time the way THEY want to.

> Most normal American parents look skeptically at “those kinds of parents.” More normal American kids view such “those kinds of kids” with scorn. If you grow up aspiring to normalcy, normalcy is what you will achieve.

There is nothing wrong with normalcy. If someone does well in something, that doesn’t mean I have to compete with them, and vice versa.

> Now close your eyes & visualize which families you knew in the 90s (or even now) who raise their kids according to one model versus the other. Be brutally honest.

This isn’t a binary thing, one model versus the other. I know families who didn’t flip out if their teenage kids were in a relationship so long as the significant other was of good character, or got a B instead of an A, or if they came home at 6pm in time for dinner rather than goosestepping to the tutor centre at 3pm just as soon as school finished, and those kids are doing fine. They might not be earning 6 figures working at an investment bank, they might have studied something tame like accounting at a mid-tier university or got into blue-collar work, rather than studying Biomedical Engineering at Oxbridge, but they are happy and satisfied.

> “Normalcy” doesn’t cut it in a hyper-competitive global market for technical talent. And if we pretend like it does, we’ll have our asses handed to us by China.

No, Mr Ramasamay, China isn’t going to hand the asses of the ordinary American people, they’re going to hand YOUR ass. This is a fight between two political entities, the USA and China, not the humble citizens. Given that you are a member of the Washington Cabal, YOU and your friends are up against the Beijing Cabal.

You are such a pompous individual. Who’s this “we”? What level of lunacy do you have to be on to think George, who lives in Oregon or Tyrone, who lives in Tennessee, has any business with their Chinese counterparts?

If Washington's prestige declines, and the Beijing cabal comes out on top of this fat cat fight, YOU and/or your children are going to have to move to China and try to join the Beijing cabal. The Beijing Cabal, unlike the cabals of London, Washington, Berlin, and all the other Western powers, is not keen on letting an ethnic foreigner into their club, let alone someone of Indian heritage.

It should be pointed out, both the Washington Cabal and Beijing Cabal, and all the other cabals, are in bed together. Their beef against each other is comparable to that of playful siblings (hence why I refer to this beef as a fat cat fight, it's not real, it's just a game to them), they are all united in ensuring the ordinary people under their jurisdiction are enslaved. This has already been demonstrated numerous times.

> This can be our Sputnik moment. We’ve awaken from slumber before & we can do it again.

• I’m not sure why he referenced a Soviet achievement when addressing an American audience.
• It should be noted Vivek is a 2nd generation American, this makes his statement, “We’ve awaken from slumber before”, very contrived.

> Trump’s election hopefully marks the beginning of a new golden era in America, but only if our culture fully wakes up.

I have nothing to say on this matter.

> A culture that once again prioritizes achievement over normalcy; excellence over mediocrity; nerdiness over conformity; hard work over laziness.

The rule of three is a very contrived rule you learn in English class, by the way. Nothing wrong with normalcy, excellence should be attained in what the individual desires to, not what society, their parents or Mr Vivek Ramasay and his Washington friends want them to do. Nerdiness over conformity? Does he think lifting weights makes you a comfortmist? Isn’t this entire post a call for people to conform to your ideal scenario?

> That’s the work we have cut out for us, rather than wallowing in victimhood & just wishing (or legislating) alternative hiring practices into existence. I’m confident we can do it. *US flag emojis*

“If you disagree with me, and if you want us to change something, you’re a victim”. Politicians are supposed to legislate, and if the American people want jobs to be secured for them, then that is their right. If the American people don’t want thousands of immigrants coming to their country, thereby causing house prices and rent to increase, and a strain on public infrastructure, that is their right. Regardless, I understand why he has a flippant attitude towards what the American people want, because no matter what, you can't vote harder.