‘They’re all pretty sharp’: American software engineer shuts down viral post stereotyping Indian professionals as ‘incompetent’

The US-based software engineer was reacting to the post, which claimed that Indians tend to treat every task as urgent, regardless of its actual priority.

3 min readNew DelhiFeb 1, 2026 03:43 PM IST

The user went on to describe an experience on a global implementation team (Representational image/Unsplash)

John Freeman, a New York–based software engineer at Citadel, took a dig at a social media user who stereotyped Indian professionals. Praising his Indian colleagues, Freeman called them “pretty sharp” and “super friendly”. He also highlighted the work ethic, intelligence, and impact of Indian professionals.

Freeman was responding to a post by an X handle named Brotherhood, which claimed that Indians tended to treat every task as urgent, regardless of its actual priority. “One class of Indian incompetence that rarely gets talked about is ‘Everything is P1 urgent priority’ guy,” the post stated.

The user went on to describe an experience on a global implementation team, alleging that there was “always — and I mean always — one Indian guy whose pet project was P1 super-urgent must-be-delivered yesterday”. The post added that change-control meetings were needed to justify why certain tasks deserved priority.

In his post, Freeman wrote, “Let’s talk about Indian competence. My team lead is Indian. My boss is Indian. His boss, who hired both of us, is Indian. His boss, the CTO, is Indian. They’re all pretty sharp! They know this business inside and out. They work well with others. Everyone is super friendly. They all speak English very well.”

“I’ve been here a year and never met an ‘everything is P1 urgent priority’ guy, of any race. My last boss at my last company was Indian and he was pretty good too. If everyone you run into at your company is incompetent, then maybe your company just hires incompetents,” he added.

See here:

Let’s talk about Indian competence. My team lead is Indian. My boss is Indian. His boss, who hired both of us, is Indian. His boss, the CTO, is Indian. They’re all pretty sharp! They know this business inside and out. They work well with others. Everyone is super friendly. They… https://t.co/CjyrH60BXl

— John Freeman (@thejohnfreeman) January 31, 2026

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Freeman’s post resonated with several X users, with one of them commenting, “This is what reality looks like when you stop inventing stereotypes. Competent people get promoted incompetent ones get loud on twitter. If your whole worldview collapses because Indians keep running things well that is a you problem not an India problem.”

“Unique thing about Indian leaders is the Multidimensional thinking & multitasking … that’s cultural !! If the Manager sets multiple P1s, it’s their level of thinking. It’s the Team’s competence to take the task. Business is Complex, not linear!” another user commented.

“India is 1000 layers woven into each other and observer will find whatever they want to find,” a third user reacted.