[BWStearns]

I would hardly say that he is belittling people in the situation you describe. What he is attempting to discourage is the mentality that sticks to the dogmatic cultural position even in the face of a) historical data indicating that academic pedigree isn't a rock-solid predictor of success, and b) local data indicating a higher than average likelihood of success for the individual in question.

This is a specific example of a problem that every culture faces, which is cultural memes that have taken on the form of divine wisdom. Not everyone will be Mittal or Gates, in fact that population is a statistically non-existent one; that doesn't mean that dropping out of college to run a startup is the worst idea for any given person. Any culture shutting off that opportunity regardless of the specific case will cost itself in lost opportunities.

And as an aside on the specific content, I am not Indian, but reading this I couldn't help but remember my Indian friends' impressions of their aunts and uncles admonishing them for doing something insane like getting an advanced economic degree when they could have been a doctor or engineer.

[r0h1n]

Dissing average Indian middle-class parents for wanting a college education and MNC job for their children, without even a cursory attempt to understand why they do so, is belittling them.

If the author truly wanted to "discourage the mentality" (your words), then he ought to at least have understood the mentality to begin with. Or provided some solid reasons as to why Indian parents ought not to insist on a college education, instead of just his ("upper middle class") isolated example.

[kamaal]

>>academic pedigree isn't a rock-solid predictor of success

Definition of success is extremely difficult to be given here.

I will give you a small example. Literacy is a big problem in India. Unfortunately since you can't read or write, your access to information is limited. This puts things like news papers and magazines outside your reach. Access to any kind of information will be weak(Access to information is the most thing for a person in the modern world)- You won't be able to make well informed decisions about anything, your knowledge of current affairs will be weak. Ultimately such a mass of people won't be able to make it big.

This is why basic education should be compulsory. Also these days knowledge of the English language is extremely important to do any work with people of other nations. English is not our native language or mother tongue. So we learn it only in schools.

[BWStearns]

Clearly neither me nor OP is arguing against basic education. Nor that college or advanced degrees are a good thing, so please get rid of that straw man fast.

Additionally, the discussion on the authors post was primarily about those who have developed some capability to "do" either outside the conventional school system or at a particularly early point. This clearly limits the applicability of the discussion to those who have in some fashion achieved access to information and processed it well. This likely rules out illiterate people, non-English speakers (specifically in Tech) and many others from the discussion. I am not saying that their exclusion from information is a good thing, clearly it is not. However, taking the median Indian and saying that the best move in their situation should be encouraged universally is clearly wrong, as is doing so in any culture/country, and I interpreted the article to only be complaining about the dogmatic attachment to that "best path" even in the face of demonstrated success.