It sounds like the Mongolian hosts showed remarkable courtesy by accommodating their guests' odd preferences during the visit.

I would imagine this was a joint venture between the Mongolian and American governments, but you’re right.

While I get where you're coming from, it's not unheard of cultures finding a local maxima that they are unwilling to leave. I guess it's hard to judge from the outside?

Peace Corps is especially notorious for sending inexperienced agriculture volunteers who's expertise is volunteering 2 months at a WWOOF organic farm, so I would not be surprised if they were just clueless new grads thinking they were saving the world.

Isn’t it hubris to think that someone who flew across the world to try to help you isn’t worth listening to?

And afterall it’s the Mongolians who might starve. Any port in a storm.

Depends on when they showed up. The helpful Americans, that is, in relation to the killer winter.

Judging from a lot of HN discussions so, Americans should really understand the rwluctance of anyone to listen to people from other countries explaining how things should be done. Exihibit A through Z: every single discussion about health care or city planning. Or gun control.

But we're exceptional - they would never work here because there's no way we could manage those things without screwing it up.

The Mongolians have been thriving in the steppes for thousands of years.

Isn’t it hubris to think that someone who flew across the world to try to help you isn’t worth listening to?

Depends on who is that that flew across the world and how much have they developed a trusted relationship with me..

Why should anyone trust every busybody's advice? If the volunteers have put their money and started a herd and proved that their herd is better managed, then it is possible to get others to follow. Giving management advice without doing it yourself is just bullshit.

Have you ever worked with consultants.

Anyone with the money can fly across the world to try to help. That doesn't make the help automatically useful.

Yeah sharing knowledge for free is definitely hubris. For sure.

Sure it is, if you have no idea if your knowledge is actully usefull and you push it anyway.

Just imagine how you feel if someone, say a consultant or a agile master, shows up at your work and tells how to do your job without having any experience with it, or the environment you are doing it for. There are even multiple threads on HN every week accusing those consultants of hubris in various ways.

Presumably they didn't just fly in and wing it, and it's kind of a given that any solutions to this problem will be different to the status quo.

The only thing that shows more hubris than telling foreigners how to live is foreigners dying en masse because they refuse to change their way of life - see, America on cars or gun control.

Correct, it definitely can be if it’s unsolicited advice and/or if the “knowledge” is low quality, incomplete, difficult to apply, or just ignorant of Chesterton’s Fence.

Let me drop by your workplace and tell you how to do your job. And call you ungrateful when you don't listen to me. I mean, I have no idea what you do for a living and you have no reason to believe I have some special expertise you lack. But hey, free knowledge right?

I'm making the assumption that whoever is sharing the knowledge has valuable knowledge. Offering value for free is the definition of benevolence.

Yep, snooty early 20-somethings flying halfway across the world to teach people with hundreds years of experience.

For sure that's not just virtue signaling and youthful delusion. For sure.

I'm making the assumption that whoever is sharing the knowledge has valuable knowledge. Offering value for free is the definition of benevolence.

I don't know the case, so yeah if it was just people without knowledge coming in and forcing it on them... ok.

There was TED Talk from person who tried to teach some African people to grow tomatoes. When tomatoes were almost-reap there were a large herd of hippos and eat all tomatoes, completely, fruits and foliage.

At least, this person (sorry, I can not recall name) acknowledge, that it was naive and hubris!

UPDATE: I was not first: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39640882 need to read whole thread before answering!