East Asia has discovered the joys of mediocrity, quitting and going boneless. Tang ping (China), sampo (Korea), satori sedai (Japan).
Conversation
Anyone able to help me find a translation of this tang ping manifesto? We must bring this important cultural phenomenon to the west.
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If I had more energy and ambition I’d get my mediocrity posts translated and become famous in China, Korea and Japan.
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This is like high-functioning hikkikomori-lite… and sounds like less gendered
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Curiously, I don’t think this exists in India because it’s always been the default. Though there are of course as many insanely competitive test-prep types, the culture as a whole is default mediocrity oriented. Strivers stand out, slackers don’t bother pretending to strive.
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For this phenomenon to exist, the culture has to be default-striver, and built around “everybody is a striver” optics. I think striver/slacker ratio is about the same worldwide (20-80 to 30-70 range) but some cultures pretend to be wholesale striver to prop up national narratives
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National archetypes everybody pretends to conform to:
US: Temporarily embarrassed millionaires
Europe, Japan: Living the good civilized retired life
UK, Korea: We’re not retired yet!
China: The Middle Kingdom shall rise again
India: Eternally slouching along in mediocritopia
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Being mediocre in a culture that is cool with that = self-perception of being normal
Being mediocre in a highly competitive culture = self-perception of being a failure
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Seems pretty enlightened when compared to the western fascination with hustle and strivers.
Generational wealth transfer makes attempts to break through feel a lot like gladiatorial combat.
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Indian civil services, IIT entrance exams are known to be tone of toughest exams in the world. There are crammers, slackers and brightest. It is wrong to say the culture is entirely mediocrity oriented. Its because of lack of infrastructure we struggle not due to lack of talent.



