Sunday, February 9, 2014

Tiger Mom Redux

Amy Chua, the ethnically Chinese author of the best-selling Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, is back with a new book that is sure to drive the PC crazy. Her new book is called The Triple Package and you'll find a review of it here on The Globe and Mail website.

Her thesis is that achievers share three traits: a group superiority complex, individual insecurity, and impulse control. She identifies several groups she believes often exhibit these traits including Chinese (of course), Jews, Mormons, Iranians, Cubans, and East Indians.

Her point is that with those traits you make it, without them you don't. I don't know about the groups she identifies, but the traits themselves make intuitive sense. For sure they are not what the culture thinks of as outstanding characteristics, worse luck.