Comment by science4sail
2 years ago
> A price paid, I think, due a conformant, restrictive culture. And after all, even if you do excel, you may soon disappear.
I once spoke to a Chinese person who speculated: "I wish that the Chinese were as conformant and uniform as the Americans - China is too diverse and unruly!"
I think that it's a common human habit to upsell one's own diversity and downplay that of others.
Conformism don't capture it. It's more complex than that but maybe authoritarian and democratic. Authoritarian organizations rewards loyalty over merit so people, in order to survive, tend to be obedient, bureaucratic, ruthless and less competent. Democratic organizations rewards merit over loyalty. Paradoxically, despite people having more freedom, things are less chaotic because people have better incentives to be competent, to trust and work out together. Though no society is perfectly one or the other.