[crypt1d]

There is an interesting observation about Asian cultures made by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers [1]. He argues that one of the reasons why Asians are _statistically_ better at math than others is because of the language and cultural legacy. More precisely, it is a lot easier to remember numbers in Chinese (and other Asian languages, apparently) than in English, giving Chinese children a head start in mathematics. This turns into quite an advantage by the time they reach college. He also argues that societies that were developed on rice farming tend to be more diligent as it is a lot more labor intensive work than ,for example, wheat farming. Also Chinese feudalism had more of a "hands off" approach, where the landlords were always taking a fixed amount of their earnings. So while Europeans were making pretty much the same amount of money during all their harvests, Asians had an income which was more proportional to their efforts. There is a lot more to it for sure, and I don't know if he is right, but its certainly a nice read.

[1] - http://gladwell.com/outliers/rice-paddies-and-math-tests/

[yardie]

By this logic Arabs and Persians must be mathematical geniuses since they invented the math system most of the world uses.

Malcolm Gladwell says (sells) a lot of shit. Literally.