So this is kind of annoying: there are tons of Korean people in my company in their 40s and 50s, and I’m basically their son’s age. It bothers me a little that, technically, I’m higher than them because I have a degree and some experience.
Today, I went to a party with them, and they seemed obsessed with making tons of money. They were surprised when I told them I used to make six figures in the US. They kept saying I should leave Canada and go back to the US to work.
I explained why I think the US is a terrible place. When I had cancer, I lost all my money because my health insurance barely covered anything (I had chosen basic health insurance to save money, but when I was diagnosed, it wiped me out). I told them I prefer Canada because it has a higher quality of life, people are nicer, and there’s universal healthcare. But these Koreans seemed to think differently.
The conversation then shifted to how they believe people in the US work harder than Canadians. I think that’s the dumbest thing ever. Canadians work just as hard—if not harder—but the US has a ton of tech companies that pay higher salaries.
Then they started praising people like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg, saying how smart they are and how hard they work. I told them it’s stupid to glorify these people—they’re not geniuses; they just got lucky and know how to market themselves. But the group insisted they’re efficient and admired how people working in FAANG companies operate.
Here’s the thing: I’ve worked with ex-Google, ex-Tesla, and ex-Facebook people before, and my experiences have been negative. They often boast about their backgrounds but contribute very little. One ex-Google guy I worked with basically destroyed 90% of a client’s business because he changed a system that caused their costs to multiply by 5-6x. When he realized it was a disaster, he reverted to the old system, got most of the clients back, and somehow still got all the credit without admitting he caused the problem in the first place.
In general, I’m not a fan of ex-FAANG tech people—they’re just people like anyone else and can be just as dumb or stupid. But Koreans seem to think they’re great, smart, and hardworking because they associate making a lot of money with being a genius.
That’s when I realized this mindset isn’t just limited to my coworkers. My parents, and uncle, and cousins think the same way, and it seems like many Koreans equate making money with being a genius.
So my question is: Why do Korean people think making tons of money = being a genius?
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