Lin wrote of an engineering firm's ad that read, "Nearly Right Is Not Enough," prompting his cataloguing of what he considered the American's three vices: "efficiency, punctuality, and the desire for achievement and success."
他說，他曾經看過一家工程公司以「『差不多正確』是不夠的！」為廣告標題，這讓他覺得，美國人的三大惡習根本就是講究效率、講求準時、希望事業成功。