I picked up Tao Te Ching as an American teenager and was moved by how it cuts against the American faith in visible dominance and self-assertion, proposing a form of strength that is low, quiet, and unseen. It's much more than that of course, but that aspect had immediate impact on my thinking.

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kccqzy 39 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

It’s a cultural thing. If a Chinese person steeped in that culture of “low, quiet, unseen” strength came to America as an immigrant, that person will likely not do very well. If the person immigrated while a child, schooling in America will quickly change that.

I don’t doubt that the aspect had immediate impact on your thinking, but I would be very surprised if it also had lasting impact on your behavior.

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justonceokay 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Reading the Tao te Ching makes it clear why the best engineers are the soft-spoken individuals who refrain from talking until the end of the meeting.

	▲	retrocog 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		That’s because good engineering is mostly listening to the system. If you talk too early, you end up arguing abstractions. If you listen long enough, the constraints introduce themselves. By the end of the meeting, the quiet person isn’t trying to win the room — they’re just reporting what reality already said.