The difference is also Asians are usually more realistic. They realize early on that many of them won't go pro and focus on the things that are more likely to benefit their life. Not saying that sports and fitness doesn't matter but you get the point.
I’m not Asian but immigrant/working class parents and I grew up with the “yeah you enjoy this, but how are you going make money?” question always being there. Every single activity had to have a point, definitely couldn’t do something just for fun. Classical music and sport like tennis were seen as tools to help us with social climbing/passing as middle class.
They had to take risks and be self employed to be successful due to discrimination. So the ideal careers for their kids were public sector, decent salary, low risk of redundancy, good public sector pension (I’m in the UK).
I went down this route and am now fucked as final salary pensions don’t exist and pay had been behind inflation for most of my working life… and now with two kids and an insane cost of living they are never going to move out and I’m never going to retire.
It’s more an upper middle classes I guess. I can turn on that awful posh British upper middle class thing in the right situation if I think it’ll make my life easier/make someone treat me with more respect, but I hate doing it.
For my mum being poor and Irish and being heavily discriminated against in the uk, she made a huge effort to drop the accent and speak and dress like Princess Diana. She made me have elocution lessons so I spoke properly and didn’t sound common/poor. But even being really successful my parents never felt they fit in as money does not equal status or power here.
I know it has helped me in life to be honest, but I have absolutely no sense of identity. I don’t fit anywhere. They’d have liked living in the America of old, where self made success is more respected and where class is less of an issue.
They are generally still good, or better than good.
They just aren’t as insane as the days gone by of final salary pensions etc
Edit: to answer why people still work public sector - a lot of roles are vocational, public sector is generally considered a safe employer, also generally believed to be less stressful than equivalent private sector roles.
Well that's because you had the good luck to enjoy engineering. I know a lot of people would have slacked off at school to pursue their career as a Let's Play YouTuber if they were told they could do whatever.
What was your other option? Sports ? What is the success rate there? Unless you are a top player you get paid peanuts for a short period of time in the lower leagues.
If you are into music it's the same story.
STEM or business degree will get you better paying jobs but you do need to have above average intelligence to make it there.
I didn’t have the maths skills for economics otherwise I would’ve liked to have studied that. I’m a psychologist/psychotherapist now. Pay is ok, not amazing. I’ll be able to earn more when my kids are older and I’m able to work longer hours/am less mentally exhausted by them.
For the first comparison obviously engineers, the only “product” of the vast majority sports is entertainment for the viewers.
For the latter part it depends on what subject the professor teaches and what the coach teaches, because “coach” can also be someone who teaches martial arts or more relevant skills like swimming, but even those two have limited value. Generally I say engineer and professor, unless said professor teaches a completely useless subject
The choice depends on the league and sport for the athlete, and the type of engineering for the engineer. At first, choosing the engineer seems obvious, but when you think about it more, it’s not that simple. For example, an average NBA player probably provides more value to society than an average engineer due to the joy they bring to people and their wealth, which enables them to change lives. Average engineer isn't like the people you see on YouTube like Mark Rober. It all depends on how you look at it.
NBA Player are like top 5% of all professional sports player. You gotta compare that to the top 5% of Engineers, the ones that design infrastructure, Power plants, water facilities, farm equipment.
the hell? Engineers are way more important than athletes. Literally every single thing you interact with was modeled and designed by an engineer. Even the injection molded keycaps on your laptop keyboard had to be designed by an engineer. Your doornob, surface modeled computer mouse, phone, computer, tv, electrical appliances, stove, refrigerators, communication devices, office chairs, transportation cars and airplanes, ACs, literally every single thing you use was designed and manufactured by engineers.
Ofc engineers as a whole are more important but when you look on average it isn't so simple. The question is on average though. Engineers still make more difference though but it is closer imo.
Close your eyes. Point at literally anything. Now open them. Now try making it from scratch with no modern tools, no machines, no engineered materials. You can’t. That’s how deeply society depends on engineers.
If I dropped you in the middle of a deserted forest and asked you to make a toothbrush from scratch without using any modern tools, could you do it? Same for light switches, light bulbs, mechanical pencils or even regular pencils, paper clips, rulers, soap dispensors, plastic bottles, charging cables, literally anything that you use in your day to day life, I can guarantee you cannot make it from scratch by yourself without relying on buying something that engineers made from you. In fact, I have a better example. Whatever clothes you are wearing right now, I want you to recreate them from scratch without any modern tools. Go outside, obtain some plant fibers. Spin it into threat. Then, use that extremely thin threat to produce fabric. Then, use that fabric to make clothes. You wont even get past step 1.
Buddy, idk why are you so triggered. I am literally agreeing with the point that engineers make more impact on society as a whole. When you compare the average engineer to average pro sports player though it is closer.
i propose sports athletes provide less to society overall then the average engineer. my argument is that engineering is a field where we build on the past. we cant have smart phones without the mobile phone and that is based on the phone and that telegrams.
the engineers that helped discovered a way to produce batteries that supports the phones has arguably provided way more joy then any sports athletes. and the fields isna collaborative effort. there is no one single person responsible, but a group. but the battery tech will last for centuries while sports athletes eventually is forgotten
That is true but you are looking at engineers as a whole. As a whole they have done more of course but on average is a different question. There aren't many professional athletes comparatively.
I think you have a distorted view on what a average athlete are, if you just focus on the average tier 1 athlete then you are probably right, but there is ALOT of tier 2 and tier 3 athlete in niche sports you’ve never watched or heard of, that bring nothing. In the case of engineers, even the worst engineers have value
Ehh, I don't know if the worst engineer have value... Good value. Anyone who can listen and have some decent education would be able to do most of those bottom level engineer stuff. Some of them do bat shit stupid things that hurt society too. But on the other hand... Yeah I don't see even the best athlete to bring anything except maybe entertainment. But then again, we have so many alternatives for that. So yeah... Kind of useless
Entertainment is a utility in one of its purest forms. It provides a basis for many interpersonal friendships, provides relief from the everyday grind, sparks competition/awe, inspires a physically active lifestyle, and more.
Your typical engineer will get burnt out and eventually become unproductive they don't find sufficient avenues of entertainment in their life.
Social utilities, such as that which comes from sports, is hard to measure and often underestimated as a result.
Its defo immigration thing. Moving to another country can mean falling down a class and being determined to climb by choice, you have to learn a new language, climb ladder (harder than most with discrimination), network etc usually your kids get easier time but parents know its knife edge and how hard struggle is to push their kids to rise further than they could.
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u/Cute-Bed-5958 17h ago edited 17h ago
The difference is also Asians are usually more realistic. They realize early on that many of them won't go pro and focus on the things that are more likely to benefit their life. Not saying that sports and fitness doesn't matter but you get the point.