Everyone tells me I'm weird, and I don't try to be, why do hipsters try so hard, yet look like everyone else?

They don't, Asians work longer hours but efficiency is actually WAY down. Part-Time European workers get more work done than the average Full-Time, Over-Time working, Asian workers do.

It isn't always true but they do seem to have a culture that often puts more value in studying and working hard.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.