I think the key is to strike a fine balance. My sibling worked hard and played hard. She’s very successful in life. I just worked hard, and had no life and not nearly as successful.

If the goal in life is in a so-so “average” profession, I believe that social skills are far more important than capabilities.

IF the goal in life is to be in a field requiring specialization/etc, then perhaps you can sort of punt on the social skills.

You kinda can’t be a all talk and no action (up to a point) and you kinda can’t be an all doer and no talk, otherwise you won’t get noticed.

I personally don’t really like some of the aspects of asian influence that parents have brought over to the states. For example, putting kids into enrichment programs starting at age 4-5… It’s getting way too extreme imho. And guess what? Asian parents aren’t the only ones doing it….My neighbors (non asian) have been sending their 4 year old to “kumon” for a few hours. And although I didn’t say anything, I was thinking, you’ve got to be kidding me…

Me, I took the lazy approach, and took TG’s advice and bought some cool math games on an ipad. Kid doesn’t want to put it down…. 🙂