>>13625503Yes, that's also a huge part of it. There's definitely expectations to do well in school and get a high-paying career. My parents never handed me any money or jobs or whatever and expected me to be a self-starter and not be a disappointment, and that probably did make me feel a bit more pressure to stop being a worthless NEET loser. (Now I'm a worthless employed loser)
That said, it seems East Asian families are on average more strict about school and career expectations. I can only speak from a handful of anecdotes but I never felt any kind of aggression or demands regarding education/career from my parents or know any Jews who did, whereas I've seen many cases of that for people with East Asian parents
And I guess if I think about it, maybe that's part of it. If you treat a kid like they're a recruit and you're a drill sergeant from age 3 to 18 (or longer), they'll probably put in tons of work hours but won't necessarily expand their horizons and follow their passions and will just become fastidious rote learners who do what they're told
Jewish families may not push their kids in any particular direction; they just implicitly make it known that they should care about education and hopefully be at least as successful as their parents in some kind of domain. So you kind of choose freely to attempt being successful rather than feeling forced to do it. From what I've seen, you won't get disowned or berated if you're not successful, but you'll kind of be looked down upon and chided. (I know this is definitely the case for plenty of people in any other group, too. But with Jews there are a lot of extended families where everyone in the extended family is at least making something close to a middle class salary, so if you're the outlier NEET / burger-flipper you might feel some extra embarrassment)
