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The Western Elite from a Chinese Perspective

americanaffairsjournal.org

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Re: The Western Elite from a Chinese Perspective

#181

Post by thrway123324212 »

thrway12332412 wrote: post #176
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the foreigners I knew in Beijing had PhDs like myself, some just had master degrees. But then I was working in a research lab. I heard of the English teachers but never met them before. The thing about foreigners in mainland China vs. Hong Kong, there just aren’t that many at all. Maybe shanghai has the most, but even then it is less than 100k, a drop in the bucket compared to Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, or…

"Most of the foreigners I knew in Beijing had PhDs". Speaking of research, you are illustrating self-selection bias and small sample size fallacy in your argument. A small group of friends do not represent the whole. You shoudn't downvote people just because their opinion differs from yours.

Seems like you are choosing to downvote people that do not agree with you. I prefer to argue with logic and not downvotes. Its very unfortunate. Good day, Mr. Mcdirmid.

Re: The Western Elite from a Chinese Perspective

#182

Post by seanmcdirmid »

thrway123324212 wrote: post #181
thrway12332412 wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Most of the foreigners I knew in Beijing had PhDs". Speaking of research, you are illustrating self-selection bias and small sample size fallacy in your argument. A small group of friends do not represent the whole. You shoudn't downvote people just because their opinion differs from yours.

Seems like you are choosing to downvote people that do not agree with you. I prefer to argue with logic and not downvotes. Its very unfortunate. Good day, Mr. Mcdirmid.

I didn’t downvote anyone.

Re: The Western Elite from a Chinese Perspective

#183

Post by seanmcdirmid »

user5994461 wrote: post #178
pcr0 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heard this a lot in investment banking. Definitely "used to be" as these days you're unlikely to make it in Hong Kong either.

The friends I know who tried to get into either say it's as hard to join HK as London. They are both super competitive.

Well, they could try Shanghai.

Re: The Western Elite from a Chinese Perspective

#184

Post by seanmcdirmid »

thrway12332412 wrote: post #176
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the foreigners I knew in Beijing had PhDs like myself, some just had master degrees. But then I was working in a research lab. I heard of the English teachers but never met them before. The thing about foreigners in mainland China vs. Hong Kong, there just aren’t that many at all. Maybe shanghai has the most, but even then it is less than 100k, a drop in the bucket compared to Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, or…

"Most of the foreigners I knew in Beijing had PhDs". Speaking of research, you are illustrating self-selection bias and small sample size fallacy in your argument. A small group of friends do not represent the whole. You shoudn't downvote people just because their opinion differs from yours.

Of course it was, but then again there are so few foreigners in Beijing that small sample size bias is inevitable.

Also, haven’t downvotes anyone on this thread.

Re: The Western Elite from a Chinese Perspective

#185

Post by user5994461 »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #183
user5994461 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The friends I know who tried to get into either say it's as hard to join HK as London. They are both super competitive.

Well, they could try Shanghai.

The main offices are usually in NYC, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore. I don't think that Shanghai is an option.

Re: The Western Elite from a Chinese Perspective

#186

Post by 1wd »

garmaine wrote: post #71
egor598 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He doesn't say his parents were poor or blue-collar workers, he compares himself to a child of aristocrat. Context is everything. > He was a child of aristocrats; I am the child of modest workers. When a one-digit millionaire compares himself to a billionaire like Bill Gates, using "modest" to describe one's wealth would be appropriate in this context.

Child of “modest workers” in a communist country can have different meaning. Maybe they’re party elites? We don’t know. Something just doesn’t add up though.

In another article he writes: "In China, where I was born, there are a lot of people who work much harder but could not enjoy similar results. The difference is that I was lucky enough to have had the chance to move abroad at a young age, thanks my parents. In other words, as Warren Buffett said, a large part of life is the lottery at birth."

http://www.economist.com/whichmba/mba-diary-standing-oration

Re: The Western Elite from a Chinese Perspective

#187

Post by gus_massa »

thrway123324212 wrote: post #181
thrway12332412 wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Most of the foreigners I knew in Beijing had PhDs". Speaking of research, you are illustrating self-selection bias and small sample size fallacy in your argument. A small group of friends do not represent the whole. You shoudn't downvote people just because their opinion differs from yours.

Seems like you are choosing to downvote people that do not agree with you. I prefer to argue with logic and not downvotes. Its very unfortunate. Good day, Mr. Mcdirmid.

The software of HN forbid to downvote the replies to a comment that a user has made, so seanmcdirmid was not able to downvote you. Someone else had to downvoted your comments.

[In case you are wondering, I didn't downvote you neither.]

[Also, complains about downvotes and accusations of downvotes are good methods to get more downvotes. See https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html ]

Re: The Western Elite from a Chinese Perspective

#188

Post by Tarq0n »

icebraining wrote: post #83
jraines wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a good point, but there's an awful lot of post-hoc Just World fallacy wrapped up in those same statements of faith. The really spurious ones - like 9/11 or Katrina being divine punishment - get media coverage but there're more bland ones that are actually more harmful; like disease or disaster being all part of God's plan. It's all good for living a life where you have to cope with what you can't directly con…

How does that tie with the statistics showing US citizens - and in particular more religious people - as good donors for charities and disaster victims? Seems contradictory.

Have you considered that charity and donation campaigns are perhaps more necessary in the US due to lack of social safety nets and governmental disaster relief?

Re: The Western Elite from a Chinese Perspective

#189

Post by grot »

mlinksva wrote: post #115

> One class was about strategy. It focused on how corporate mottos and logos could inspire employees. Probably not intended as such, but I'll take it as a hilarious send up of "strategy" and will recall it whenever I witness "strategy" being used vacuously.

I think he meant it. His English is very fluent throughout the article.

Re: The Western Elite from a Chinese Perspective

#190

Post by taneq »

smallnamespace wrote: post #138
alexasmyths wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"People wind up where they are largely through circumstance, not intention. " There may be a lot of randomness on the way to becoming, or almost becoming a doctor, but you don't get to be a doctor by randomness. See what I mean? You get to be a doctor only with quite a very long term intent and perseverance, by stacking the odds, and rolling the dice a lot. Though I get what you are saying - I also don't think that m…

> You get to be a doctor only with quite a very long term intent and perseverance, by stacking the odds, and rolling the dice a lot. So what do you think is the value of P(becoming doctor | intent and perseverance)? If it's only 50%, then I'd argue that whether someone succeeds in becoming a doctor or not is indeed quite random. And maybe more relevant, but what are the factors that cause someone to have strong willp…

> And maybe more relevant, but what are the factors that cause someone to have strong willpower and perseverance, and were those under their own control?

And that's the question, isn't it? Depending on where you draw your battery limits, you can take credit (and responsibility) for absolutely everything, or absolutely nothing.

To quote Tim Minchin, from his speech to UWA grads:

> Remember it’s all luck. You are lucky to be here. You are incalculably lucky to be born and incredibly lucky to be brought up by a nice family who encouraged you to go to uni. Or if you were born into a horrible family that’s unlucky and you have my sympathy but you are still lucky. Lucky that you happen to be made of the sort of DNA that went on to make the sort of brain which when placed in a horrible child environment would make decisions that meant you ended up eventually graduated uni. Well done you for dragging yourself up by your shoelaces. But you were lucky. You didn’t create the bit of you that dragged you up. They’re not even your shoelaces.

> I suppose I worked hard to achieve whatever dubious achievements I’ve achieved but I didn’t make the bit of me that works hard any more than I made the bit of me that ate too many burgers instead of attending lectures when I was here at UWA. Understanding that you can’t truly take credit for your successes nor truly blame others for their failures will humble you and make you more compassionate. Empathy is intuitive. It is also something you can work on intellectually.

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