generally one of the smartest 2-4 kids in my class
This is interesting. Do you think your aversion to what you saw as arrogance, but which turned out to be (at least partially) accuracy, might have been overcome earlier if, for example, you’d been the clear leader, rather than having even a small group you could consider intellectual peers? Was that how you saw them?
It’s possible. Although for me to have been the “clear leader” you probably would’ve had to remove a number of people who weren’t in the top 2-4 as well. And even then I might have just thought of my family as unusually great, because there’d still be my terrifyingly smart younger brother.
Silicon Valley could be an odd place. I actually grew up in a neighborhood where most of the kids were of Indian descent (we played cricket and a game from India that I just found on Wikipedia called Kabaddi (I can’t believe this is played professionally) in addition to standard US games). I didn’t think to ask then, but I guess they were mostly children of immigrant software engineers? I haven’t really lived anywhere other than the SF bay area yet, so I don’t have much to compare it to. Right now I’m thinking I should prepare myself for way more stupidity and racial homogeneity.
Silicon Valley could be an odd place. I actually grew up in a neighborhood where most of the kids were of Indian descent (we played cricket and a game from India that I just found on Wikipedia called Kabaddi (I can’t believe this is played professionally) in addition to standard US games).
It took me a few seconds pondering the playing of cricket as ‘odd’ to realize that I need to identify with the Indians in this story.
This is interesting. Do you think your aversion to what you saw as arrogance, but which turned out to be (at least partially) accuracy, might have been overcome earlier if, for example, you’d been the clear leader, rather than having even a small group you could consider intellectual peers? Was that how you saw them?
It’s possible. Although for me to have been the “clear leader” you probably would’ve had to remove a number of people who weren’t in the top 2-4 as well. And even then I might have just thought of my family as unusually great, because there’d still be my terrifyingly smart younger brother.
Silicon Valley could be an odd place. I actually grew up in a neighborhood where most of the kids were of Indian descent (we played cricket and a game from India that I just found on Wikipedia called Kabaddi (I can’t believe this is played professionally) in addition to standard US games). I didn’t think to ask then, but I guess they were mostly children of immigrant software engineers? I haven’t really lived anywhere other than the SF bay area yet, so I don’t have much to compare it to. Right now I’m thinking I should prepare myself for way more stupidity and racial homogeneity.
It took me a few seconds pondering the playing of cricket as ‘odd’ to realize that I need to identify with the Indians in this story.
Even as a native Aussie I sometimes find playing cricket to be odd.