When I lived in Asia. I would [...] avoid saying any original thoughts out loud in any situation where I was not the highest status person.
That explains a lot about a meeting several months ago in which I was the only Caucasian. I was only trying to signal my willingness to engage on the issue by coming up with a “helpful” idea but there were pained expressions and then the PI “responded” by just repeating exactly what he had just said before my comment.
I would love to spend a few years learning Asian culture. I imagine it would greatly expand your skill-set to understand both Western and Asian paradigms. Or do the memes compete and confuse? I suppose a child raised in both cultures could find the synergy—but what about a ‘typical’ adult? What did you find? Do the ideas synergize or broadly need compartmentalization?
In response to komponisto, below: I did mean ‘principle investigator’, apologies if it was inappropriately assumed common knowledge.
there were pained expressions and then the PI “responded” by just repeating exactly what he had just said before my comment.
Sorry to be off-topic, but:
Even after consulting this list, I can’t come up with a single meaning of “PI” that would make sense in this sentence. ( “Principal investigator” is perhaps the closest, but that would only be appropriate if you are a research scientist and everyone here knows this, likely because they’re research scientists too.)
That explains a lot about a meeting several months ago in which I was the only Caucasian. I was only trying to signal my willingness to engage on the issue by coming up with a “helpful” idea but there were pained expressions and then the PI “responded” by just repeating exactly what he had just said before my comment.
I would love to spend a few years learning Asian culture. I imagine it would greatly expand your skill-set to understand both Western and Asian paradigms. Or do the memes compete and confuse? I suppose a child raised in both cultures could find the synergy—but what about a ‘typical’ adult? What did you find? Do the ideas synergize or broadly need compartmentalization?
In response to komponisto, below: I did mean ‘principle investigator’, apologies if it was inappropriately assumed common knowledge.
Sorry to be off-topic, but:
Even after consulting this list, I can’t come up with a single meaning of “PI” that would make sense in this sentence. ( “Principal investigator” is perhaps the closest, but that would only be appropriate if you are a research scientist and everyone here knows this, likely because they’re research scientists too.)
Private Investigator? :-O