Name: The Geography of Thought
ISBN: 9781857883534

What Hacker News says

rramadassDec 2025

See also the psychologist Richard Nisbett's (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_E._Nisbett) works specifically;

The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...and Why - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Geography_of_Thought

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rramadassSep 2025

> Hopefully, I'm not overestimating my reading comprehension ;-)

I am afraid you have :-) Where did you get your 15%? It is actually 65% of the population that overestimates itself.

If you wanted to talk actual numbers you would have read the study referred to in the article. Here it is; 65% of Americans believe they are above average in intelligence: Results of two nationally representative surveys - https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal... In particular; read carefully the section "Education: Are beliefs calibrated?" since that clarifies your misunderstanding.

Like all statistical studies there can be discussions on sampling/methodology/distributions/etc. but the overall conclusion seems definite viz. last para;

Despite these limitations, we conclude that Americans’ self-flattering beliefs about intelligence are alive and well several decades after their discovery was first reported. Our results update the textbook phenomenon of intelligence overconfidence by (1) replicating the effect using large, representative, contemporary samples and two distinct survey methods, (2) demonstrating a degree of calibration across levels of education, and (3) showing moderation based on sex and age. The endurance of the smarter-than-average effect is consistent with the possibility that a tendency to overrate one’s own abilities is a stable feature of human psychology.

And i might add, more pronounced in the American Culture than others. For more understanding on this see Richard Nisbett's The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...and Why - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Geography_of_Thought

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rramadassJun 2022

You might find The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...and Why by Richard Nisbett interesting.

Like you, having experienced both Eastern/Western values i had come to the conclusion that this is the main reason for the "Rise of West" over the last few centuries. Individualism has free reign within a much larger boundary so People can realize their potential in any chosen dimension. Eastern Cultures/Values were so stifling that they sabotaged their own development. Thankfully they have learnt their lesson (we are adaptive organisms after all) and i believe that their amalgamation of Groupism and Individualism is now propelling them forward.

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mallowdramSep 2025

<<You'll see, for example, the first reply bears almost no relation to TFA nor to the comment they were replying to. Then, when pressed, they responded with obfuscation.>>

The reply deals directly with both the article in question and the post heading this thread. Neither get at the cause of the confused translation. My post provides a direct channel past idiomatic expression into the source pf all language mistranslation, that words are arbitrary, and particularly what sabotages exchanges between Western agentic language and Eastern nonagentic languages (Chinese, Korean, Japanese - each with their own peculiar forms of non-agency.

If you don't understand a statement, then ask questions. If you think it's obscure, then detailed questions. If you understand it, then probably very bad protocol to accuse anyone of being a bot. In any case, this is a protocol network, each exchange is negotiable. If you want to participate, do it in good faith and keep the outlook rosy, avoid characterization: you are not a mindreader. One thing is clear here, there's a very big divide in here between the intellectually curious, and the intuited pretenders who seem to have only a background in pseudoscience and folk science/psychology who are posing as scientific thinkers. Some of you may have extensive math backgrounds, but this is not enough to parse theory and demonstration in the linguistic and neuroscientific fields. Keep your minds open.

If you need some background that goes into the statement, I'd do some research, here's a section of the citations from Nisbett's Geography of Thought that delineate how distinct Eastern and Western perception and language are:

Gentner, D. (1982) Why are nouns learned before verbs: Linguistic relativity versus natural partitioning. In S. A. Kuczaj (Ed.), Language Development: Vol. 2 Language thought and culture. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Gentner, D. (1981). "Some interesting differences between nouns and verbs." Cognition and Brain Theory 4, 161-178. Imai, M., and Gentner, D. (1994). "A cross-linguistic study of early word meaning: Universal ontology and linguistic influence." Cognition 62, 169-200. Ji, L., Peng, K., and Nisbett, R. E. (2000). "Culture, control, and perception of relationships in the environment." Journal of Personality and Social Psychobgy 78, 9 Masuda, T., and Nisbett, R. E. (2001). "Attending holistically vs. analytically: Comparing the context sensitivity of Japanese and Americans.” Nisbett, R. E., Peng, K., Choi, I., and Norenzayan, A. (2001). "Culture and systems of thought: Holistic vs. analytic cognition.” Norenzayan, A., Smith, E. E., Kim, B. J., and Nisbett, R. E. (in press). "Cultural preferences for formal versus intuitive reasoning.” Norenzayan, A., and Kim, B. J. (2002). A cross-cultural comparison of regulatory focus and its effect on the logical consistency of beliefs. Unpublished manuscript, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C. Norenzayan, A., Choi, I., and Nisbett, R. E. (2002). "Cultural similarities and differences in social inference: Evidence from behavioral predictions and lay theories of behavior." Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 28, 109-120. Peng, K., and Nisbett, R. E. (1999). "Culture, dialectics, and reasoning about contradiction.”

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stuxnet79Apr 2025

> To me, that feels like a failure of the deeper social system. I want to be loyal to the people I work for/with, not treat our relationship like a transaction that is socially acceptable to end at any minute.

Great comment. The confounding variable here is culture.

American cultural norms devalue stable relationships in favor of personal fulfillment and self-actualization.

It isn't like this everywhere. There's a reason why business culture is different in Asia. The underlying attitudes there regarding social norms and how people can relate to each other i.e. what's acceptable and not acceptable, are very different. As a result, commerce there is conducted differently as well. Richard Nisbett wrote a book that goes into detail on this topic [1]

I will not make a judgement on which approach is better, or tie it into economic metrics but the bottom line is that attitudes towards work such as this one are highly influenced by the underlying behavioral norms. Without acknowledging this I don't think you can have a productive conversation on the topic.

[1] The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...and Why - Richard Nisbett

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rramadassOct 2024

> 3 seems irrelevant with regard to China given the difference in population sizes being compensated for

Not what i am implying. It is the differences in modes of thinking coming from different cultures that leads to breakthroughs, sustaining development and more. They play off of each other's strengths leading to something unique which is not possible in a mono-cultural country. It is hard to quantify directly but can be measured via its effects on Science/Technology/Economy etc.

See the psychologist Richard Nisbett's (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_E._Nisbett) works; The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...and Why (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Geography_of_Thought) and Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_and_How_to_Get_It) for some insights.

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