Quotes

Elia Diodati reproduced an email from a Singaporean working in a tech company in Silicon Valley:

Few graduates of local universities are prepared for the real world

It pains me to write this, but this much of the brutal truth must be said of Singaporeans who graduate from Singapore universities. Many - not all, but many - of these young graduates are ill-prepared to survive the cruel reality of the world outside school, let alone the world beyond Singapore’s borders. Maybe it’s the cumulative effects of brainwashing from local schools, the government, or even their parents, but many of them lack the initiative, drive and independence to make it in the real world. Few of them have any interest in geopolitics and world news (rubbish from the Straits Times doesn’t count). Some will even put themselves into massive debt immediately upon graduating by marriage and buying a HDB flat before having made a single cent. Many others will continue to live their parents, never feeling the need to pay rent, cook or do one’s own laundry.

And when it comes to working, some graduates I’ve met seem to have learnt nothing useful in school. They wait for orders to be dished out to them and lack the initiative to work independently. Worse, they have no passion for anything; the passion to take the initiative to do their own research; the passion of believing that one’s work has value; the passion of actually enjoying what one’s work; the passion to have a long-term vision of the future. If there are passionate Singaporeans working in Singapore, I have yet to meet them.

More here: Singapore's bleak future.