Chun Hwai Su, a statistician for New York City government who immigrated from Taiwan, developed a deliberate parenting strategy after noticing his daughter Lisa's intellect and restlessness in school. He turned to Talmudic study and extracted two principles that would shape the future AMD CEO.
The first: "One whose deeds exceed his wisdom, his wisdom will endure." Practical application matters more than theoretical knowledge. Results trump abstractions.
The second rejected artificial ceilings. Su taught his children to compete against their own prior performance, not against peers—and to resist the protective parenting that stifles that drive.
When young Lisa disassembled toys without reassembling them, Chun Hwai didn't punish the mess. He brought home more complex toys. When she was bored in class, he didn't advocate for acceleration. He suggested she tutor struggling classmates. The shy girl who did so eventually became student council president.
These details emerged in a 2016 magazine interview that later formed the basis for a newspaper article. Chun Hwai Su reflected that a Taiwanese upbringing might have channeled Lisa differently—a small note on how cultural context shapes even the most intentional parenting.
The through-line is visible in Su's career at AMD: operational rigor, disciplined capital allocation, and a willingness to invest in hard engineering problems rather than chase near-term margins. Whether by design or inheritance, the father's emphasis on doing over theorizing found its way into how the daughter runs a semiconductor company.
