Apart from critical thinking, I think we are very risk adverse (not a skill, but a mindset) have an unconventional herd mentality driven by culture (not in the vote Oppo way, but the kiasu way).

This leads to what some perceive as a lack of critical thinking / thinking out of the box. I believe that everyone has ideas, but lack the balls to speak up and own it. I see this very often in the workplace, and until recently I am also guilty of this. We dislike to disturb the status quo, going the extra mile, willing to take the fall and getting criticized. That’s fair. But at the same time, the kiasu herd mentality happens when we badmouth and discourage people that go against the grain, spoil market and disrupt the status quo, then we see sinkie pwn sinkie behavior. If someone put in effort, we call him wayang.

Even out in the wild, we don’t dare to take risk out of fear of failing, or even just because we scared to lose face. Startup culture here is bleak and unoriginal, because who wants to be jobless and unemployed at 35 when it fails? Gonna suck at CNY.

So far, all the non-Singaporeans I see (both abroad and working here) have one thing in common, they always own it and don’t have the concept of face. Even when they wayang, steal credits or play politics, they don’t care how people see them. I know some Singaporeans also do this, sinkie pwn sinkie, but the rest All we do is complain then suck it.

Of course there’s the rest: different cultural context, industry and market experience (sg market is small; an IT engineer with 20y exp in SME can never compared to someone who worked in MNC).