0/ "There is about as much need for a new university in California as that of an asylum for decayed sea-captains in Switzerland", opined the New York Mail and Express about the newly opened Stanford University in 1891
1/ I read that juicy quote in @Eric_Weiner's book "The Geography of Genius". He was speculating that part of Fred Terman's (godfather of Silicon Valley) motivation was the chip on his shoulder from the East Coast's persistent derision of the West Coast in general
2/ "The Establishment" turned out to be wrong, of course, but it took a long time for Stanford to become the @Stanford we know today. But the "chip on the shoulder" is a powerful motivator.
3/ Eric goes on to relay that "One venture capitalist told me that when trying to decide whether to find a startup-up, he looks for the chip on the CEO's shoulder. The bigger the chip, the better."
4/ This is a powerful part of Silicon Valley culture: we think of failure as a positive thing so long as there is fast, introspective, and genuine learning from the experience ("fail fast", "move fast and break things", etc.)
5/ I grew up in a different culture graded by something called the Asian Grading Scale:
urbandictionary.com/define.php?ter…
urbandictionary.com/define.php?ter…
6/ And while there is much to commend about the Asian education system, it also has much to learn from a system that encourages risk-taking + experimentation and does not punish the right kind of failure
