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Some of the comments here might apply to certain American MISM students, but my primary intended audience is the majority of MISM students who are foreigners – and particularly those foreign MISM students who strive for careers here in the USA and might possibly become naturalized American citizens at some point in the future.
First of all, let me express my sincere congratulations to you for your accomplishments. As I have stated countless times to many of you in individual conversations, I have been extremely impressed by your academic tenacity and your ability to adapt to strange new environments. Traveling across the world to a new and fundamentally different country – with the purpose of enrolling in one of that country’s most elite universities, with courses in a non-maternal language - is not an achievement to be taken lightly. You deserve nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for this endeavor.
However, despite all of your accomplishments, I remain distressed and troubled by certain continued behaviors that I have seen exhibited by a majority of students in our cohort – indeed, a vast majority of foreign MISM students seem to continue to fall into these traps. Because of my past commentary on this behavior, I am aware that there are those of you who believe that “Adam Harpool hates MISM students.” You are quite wrong in this assumption. In fact, it could not be any further from the truth, and the many lasting, close friendships that I have established with MISM students – most of whom are foreigners, but who do not display the behaviors outlined below – dispels the validity of this claim. What I do fiercely hate, however, are certain types of behaviors exhibited by a wide majority of foreign MISM students; I hate these attitudes and behaviors not just because they have resulted in widespread social dysfunction in the Heinz College, but also because they will severely inhibit your future career growth, social prosperity, and overall success. These are only behaviors, though, and they can be changed; it is my most sincere hope that many of you will choose to correct these behaviors before they irreparably damage your career positioning and social prospects. In short, the three harmful behaviors that I would like to highlight here are:
1. A highly clique-ish mindset and a total unwillingness to associate with people not from your home nation outside of class;
2. An unwillingness to understand or care about the world outside of your specific area of career interest;
3. A total inability to balance work concerns with the other aspects of life on this planet.
Many of you have spent close to two years in the United States – the world’s most diverse country – and yet still have social networks that could have easily been transported directly from China or India. This is a colossal failure on your part; that is, if you are an Indian with only Indian friends or a Chinese student who exclusively associates with other students from China, you have completely failed to understand this country’s history of immigration and the possibilities afforded by it. Perhaps you’ll say that “this is how we form our social networks in my home country.” But if you haven’t noticed yet, you are no longer in China or India, and things are done differently here. Perhaps you’ll say that “it’s hard to befriend foreigners, and my English skills limit this.” To the latter point, the only way to improve your English skills is through practice; and for the former point, how many Americans do you see who make it a point to eschew all contact outside of class with foreign students because it is “easier” to associate with Americans only? Sure, we have our fair share of racists and nativists in this country, but most Americans are amicable, open people who would love to associate with and befriend you, and learn about your home country – regardless of where you come from – if you simply extend them the opportunity to do so. If you plan to return to your home country, so be it. However, if you plan to remain here in the United States for a long-term career, you should be aware that your behavior in this regard will only serve as a severe inhibitor to your career success, and might even perceived by some people as xenophobia or racism. You will create an unnecessary burden to your own potential and success by failing to bond with a wide variety of people, and it is my hope that none of you fall into this trap.
A highly related concern of mine is your inability to care for or seemingly even perceive the “big picture.” Many of you can only have conversations on two topics: your home country, and the field of information technology. Perhaps it will serve as a brash wake-up call to some of you, but there are indeed other areas of affinity outside of those two – and I would suggest that you begin to care. What about the arts and the humanities? What about the broad field of business? What about international relations? What about sports or recreational activities? What about domestic and foreign politics? What about the pressing issues of globalization, climate change, and social disparity? What about your communities, your region, your role in shaping all of these things? To so many of you, these facets of both globalized and localized society – and so many others - seem entirely foreign, a bold new world into which you dare not venture. Your concerns have been entirely devoted to events in your home country and the code that you produce for your classes. Such a narrow, myopic view of the world will also serve as a gargantuan burden for you moving forward, and I hope that as you grow older, you will broaden your perspective – after all, there is a vast, fascinating world outside of Hamburg Hall’s third floor.
Finally, many of you have demonstrated an utter inability to balance your work and your careers with your life; indeed, it seems that for many of you your work is your life, the totality of your raison d’être. Some people might fiercely disagree with me, but I will contend to the grave that this is not a healthy or balanced way to proceed through your life. First of all, it makes you very difficult to work with; when you bicker over 4 deducted points off an assignment that is worth 50, you will build a reputation as being unreasonable and intransigently hard-headed. As a more important note, you lead a very empty life, indeed, if your work is the thing to which you attach the most value. Take it from a person who was once just as stubborn and dedicated to these things as many of you – the pivotal moment for me was the unexpected death of my mother at age 52, an event which revealed to me the irrefutable veracity of the fact that you aren’t guaranteed a single moment of this life. Not a single goddamned millisecond of the future is guaranteed, and just as excessive short-term hedonism is unquestionably harmful, so also is a mindless infatuation with future goals, future success, future pay raises, and future enjoyment of time that you should be cherishing today. Other than your degrees, your honors, and your code, what would you have to show for your life is you passed away tomorrow? Please do not mistake this for a call to an abdication of work ethic and innovation; it is quite possible to attain both a highly rewarding career and a highly rewarding life outside of work. Many of you critically need to refocus your lens to attain that balance.
It is my hope that my comments will not be perceived as unnecessarily harsh or critical, but rather as the serious concerns of a person who wants to see each and every one of you attain your maximum potential and happiness. As your classmate and colleague – and in many cases your friend - I have truly been amazed by the seemingly boundless depth of your intellectual curiosity and drive, and I do not wish to see your potential curtailed due to certain behavioral characteristics. Please take my advice in that context, and always know that you are a true asset to this country or any other environment in which you find yourself. My only wishes for you are for peace, prosperity, and a life full of happiness.
Sincerely yours with my most profound best wishes,
-Adam Harpool
First of all, let me express my sincere congratulations to you for your accomplishments. As I have stated countless times to many of you in individual conversations, I have been extremely impressed by your academic tenacity and your ability to adapt to strange new environments. Traveling across the world to a new and fundamentally different country – with the purpose of enrolling in one of that country’s most elite universities, with courses in a non-maternal language - is not an achievement to be taken lightly. You deserve nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for this endeavor.
However, despite all of your accomplishments, I remain distressed and troubled by certain continued behaviors that I have seen exhibited by a majority of students in our cohort – indeed, a vast majority of foreign MISM students seem to continue to fall into these traps. Because of my past commentary on this behavior, I am aware that there are those of you who believe that “Adam Harpool hates MISM students.” You are quite wrong in this assumption. In fact, it could not be any further from the truth, and the many lasting, close friendships that I have established with MISM students – most of whom are foreigners, but who do not display the behaviors outlined below – dispels the validity of this claim. What I do fiercely hate, however, are certain types of behaviors exhibited by a wide majority of foreign MISM students; I hate these attitudes and behaviors not just because they have resulted in widespread social dysfunction in the Heinz College, but also because they will severely inhibit your future career growth, social prosperity, and overall success. These are only behaviors, though, and they can be changed; it is my most sincere hope that many of you will choose to correct these behaviors before they irreparably damage your career positioning and social prospects. In short, the three harmful behaviors that I would like to highlight here are:
1. A highly clique-ish mindset and a total unwillingness to associate with people not from your home nation outside of class;
2. An unwillingness to understand or care about the world outside of your specific area of career interest;
3. A total inability to balance work concerns with the other aspects of life on this planet.
Many of you have spent close to two years in the United States – the world’s most diverse country – and yet still have social networks that could have easily been transported directly from China or India. This is a colossal failure on your part; that is, if you are an Indian with only Indian friends or a Chinese student who exclusively associates with other students from China, you have completely failed to understand this country’s history of immigration and the possibilities afforded by it. Perhaps you’ll say that “this is how we form our social networks in my home country.” But if you haven’t noticed yet, you are no longer in China or India, and things are done differently here. Perhaps you’ll say that “it’s hard to befriend foreigners, and my English skills limit this.” To the latter point, the only way to improve your English skills is through practice; and for the former point, how many Americans do you see who make it a point to eschew all contact outside of class with foreign students because it is “easier” to associate with Americans only? Sure, we have our fair share of racists and nativists in this country, but most Americans are amicable, open people who would love to associate with and befriend you, and learn about your home country – regardless of where you come from – if you simply extend them the opportunity to do so. If you plan to return to your home country, so be it. However, if you plan to remain here in the United States for a long-term career, you should be aware that your behavior in this regard will only serve as a severe inhibitor to your career success, and might even perceived by some people as xenophobia or racism. You will create an unnecessary burden to your own potential and success by failing to bond with a wide variety of people, and it is my hope that none of you fall into this trap.
A highly related concern of mine is your inability to care for or seemingly even perceive the “big picture.” Many of you can only have conversations on two topics: your home country, and the field of information technology. Perhaps it will serve as a brash wake-up call to some of you, but there are indeed other areas of affinity outside of those two – and I would suggest that you begin to care. What about the arts and the humanities? What about the broad field of business? What about international relations? What about sports or recreational activities? What about domestic and foreign politics? What about the pressing issues of globalization, climate change, and social disparity? What about your communities, your region, your role in shaping all of these things? To so many of you, these facets of both globalized and localized society – and so many others - seem entirely foreign, a bold new world into which you dare not venture. Your concerns have been entirely devoted to events in your home country and the code that you produce for your classes. Such a narrow, myopic view of the world will also serve as a gargantuan burden for you moving forward, and I hope that as you grow older, you will broaden your perspective – after all, there is a vast, fascinating world outside of Hamburg Hall’s third floor.
Finally, many of you have demonstrated an utter inability to balance your work and your careers with your life; indeed, it seems that for many of you your work is your life, the totality of your raison d’être. Some people might fiercely disagree with me, but I will contend to the grave that this is not a healthy or balanced way to proceed through your life. First of all, it makes you very difficult to work with; when you bicker over 4 deducted points off an assignment that is worth 50, you will build a reputation as being unreasonable and intransigently hard-headed. As a more important note, you lead a very empty life, indeed, if your work is the thing to which you attach the most value. Take it from a person who was once just as stubborn and dedicated to these things as many of you – the pivotal moment for me was the unexpected death of my mother at age 52, an event which revealed to me the irrefutable veracity of the fact that you aren’t guaranteed a single moment of this life. Not a single goddamned millisecond of the future is guaranteed, and just as excessive short-term hedonism is unquestionably harmful, so also is a mindless infatuation with future goals, future success, future pay raises, and future enjoyment of time that you should be cherishing today. Other than your degrees, your honors, and your code, what would you have to show for your life is you passed away tomorrow? Please do not mistake this for a call to an abdication of work ethic and innovation; it is quite possible to attain both a highly rewarding career and a highly rewarding life outside of work. Many of you critically need to refocus your lens to attain that balance.
It is my hope that my comments will not be perceived as unnecessarily harsh or critical, but rather as the serious concerns of a person who wants to see each and every one of you attain your maximum potential and happiness. As your classmate and colleague – and in many cases your friend - I have truly been amazed by the seemingly boundless depth of your intellectual curiosity and drive, and I do not wish to see your potential curtailed due to certain behavioral characteristics. Please take my advice in that context, and always know that you are a true asset to this country or any other environment in which you find yourself. My only wishes for you are for peace, prosperity, and a life full of happiness.
Sincerely yours with my most profound best wishes,
-Adam Harpool
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