Everyone knows leetcode, the debate rages about its efficacy of filtering for good engineers. What has occurred to me recently, is that leetcode is essentially the same as the entrance exams into the IIT schools in India, as well as the rigorous exams in China. It requires extensive memorization, with bits of logic sprinkled here and there. It is an eastern way of thinking about intelligence and how to select for it via an objective process. This is not to disparage those from eastern countries, or their methods of education. But it drives at a deeper reality of what has made western civilization great; an emphasis on free/critical thought, innovation, and creativity, over rote memorization. Top schools in the United States take a holistic picture of their admissions candidates, partly to ensure they can admit legacy and diversity candidates, but also because GPA and SAT do not paint a full picture of who will do great things. In this same vein, the barrier to entry at the most profitable and powerful corporations is now dictated by an eastern way of evaluation, reflecting the dominance of those who have immigrated over the incumbent forms of thought. I think this is a bigger cultural issue than people want to admit and is only the beginning of the debasement of western excellence.