Amy Chua and Her Husband

Amy Chua, who created so much angst with Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, has written another book, this one with her fellow Yale professor and mystery writer husband Jed Rubenfeld. The book is called The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America and tries to find characteristics of success in America.  They argue that eight cultural groups are poised for success because those cultures possess specific traits: a superiority complex, insecurity and impulse control. The groups are: Jews, Mormons, Indian Americans, Iranians, Cuban exiles, Nigerian Americans, Lebanese Americans and the Chinese. Interestingly they say these characteristics are imported from their homelands and their advantages do not persist after two generations in the country. 

Chua says in an interview with NPR that perhaps the basis is that many immigrants come from nations with strong histories of achievement and might try harder in a new country where they have a disadvantage and something to prove. When the preoccupied NPR asked the non sequitur of why activism and "moral authority" are not prominent in her book, Chua answered revealingly (and cautiously):
"We talk about this conventional success, this idea that you have to be successful based on income or education, or you have to be a certain kind of professional, almost as a downside — it's a pathology. And I understand it because a lot of people who are immigrants, they are insecure about survival. So if you just come from a country and you don't know if your kid can make it, you want them to be a professional, you're afraid for them to be an activist or a poet." She did not discuss degrees in transgender studies.

Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld being the smartest guys in the room on NBC: