The Dutchy Dutchiest Mentality Proven Wrong

Ok, I have to admit that I use “Dutch Mentality” in the title in a friendly way, as in a way to make fun of cultures and countries (which I think we should all do in order to laugh about our differences rather than fight for them). And, generalizing is not really my kind of approach, neither my intention in this post. I can’t affirm that “Dutch people” are in a certain way, because there are only collective characteristics that apply to a group of people but still don’t apply to all members in the same way.

Anyways, reading some of Greek philosophy I couldn’t help but think of the Dutch. In Ecuador (and then again, I refer to my experiences there) what you usually do when you have been assigned to do something, you look for the person that is collectively known as “the master in the subject” and you request their help to resolve your issues. But also, when you know that someone has done something or knows something you would always ask and avoid the waste of time that would be to try to find it by yourself, or do the research all over again. What I mean is that you would always ask people to just “teach you”, tell you how, when and where, rather than try to do it by yourself. We say, we don’t want to “re-invent the warm water” and we never try to do complicated things in our own, we gather everyone who is needed (and sometimes some who are not needed but are good company)

Dutch people in the other side (and this again, is my personal experience in Holland) reply to most questions: Have you look for it in Internet? Have you try books? and the friendlier ones say: mmm, I’ve got some links that you can check up, or give you the titles for books.

In my first year in here I thought, but… but, It would take you 5 minutes to explain me, why do I have to go and do all the research and spend 2 or 3 hours in it, just for the sake to do it by myself?. Later I thought that maybe that approach is better for learning to do stuff by yourself, gather more knowledge and become more independent. Now, the independent part is never sounded totally convincing to me. Why would you want to be independent if we all work together better, by complementing each other when we all collaborate to put the puzzle together by doing the single chores we are talented at? But then again, someone told me once: “maybe that’s why we’ve become a first world country and you guys are a third” (although we are a second world country). Sounded reasonable, maybe we were not independent enough.

But recently, I was reading nice article that talked about the Greeks. They used to laugh at people who did complicated things all by themselves. The ones who tried to do it all by themselves were considered “idiots”, for the simple reason that it’s just easier to solve a difficult problem in a group than alone. They thought that doing stuff collectively did always led to better results; and, it was easier and more fun than doing it alone.

Hurray for collectivity!!



* the article I read was from... mnnn InformationArchitects.jp?? not sure, i'll be back with the correct info. I should note the addresses and names of the articles I read, since my mind loves to remember concepts and usually fails to remember details :)