Well, we should all be glad that the exemples from US are spreading to the rest of the world! If only more countries stopped being copycats and started actually copying the US model. God bless America. Humpf
The title is also really bad, as if China was at a given time a whole nation of copycats (although the article itself doesn't insist on this point).
People reverse engineer your product/company. So what?
This reads largely true for me, but it is also pretty obviously not true on a serious scale (compare the F-35 fighter to the J-31 fighter). That said, raising a younger generation of people who think outside the box has its own perils for any government where some boxes are not meant to be left (I include the US government in this list as well). I am a strong advocate of critical thinking and independent verification, but I can tell you that it gets me into trouble more often than it gets me accolades :-). The response to such thinking can be harsh. People who think critically are often considered "intellectuals" and China has dealt with such people harshly in the past, even at the expense of the greater country. Here in the US it is used as an insult in circles where the smart choice would dictate a different path than the current policy (yes I'm thinking about the whole global warming "debate").
Bottom line is that this is both good and bad news for China.
> I am a strong advocate of critical thinking and independent verification, but I can tell you that it gets me into trouble more often than it gets me accolades :-).
I was discouraged by that fact before, and wondered whether joining the herd thinking was actually better for my own life. Until I avoided the China stock market crash last year, where many others persist in their illusion that the stock market can boom even when the fundamentals are weak.
In fact, critical thinking and independent verification only get you into trouble if you publicly speak out. If you just keep the results to yourself, you can find opportunities and escape disasters before others, assuming your thinking gets you closer to the truth rather than further. Why enlighten the fools if you can just exploit them? Especially since they won't listen anyway?
The fundamentals lost their annual rise from 6% to 3%, which is still a much better rate than any other major economy.
I kept my chinese investments and it's still raising with 3.5%. True rises, not artificial booms.
Still more secure than the promised 10-20% interest from monetary gambling by wallstreet, not backed up by economic advantages.
I find this impossible to believe; "In 2000, barely four per cent of China was middle class - meaning with an income ranging from $9,000 (£6,270) to $34,000 - but by 2012, fully two-thirds had climbed into that bracket." They must be counting something as a subsidy which people aren't actually consuming. To think that almost all of US GDP growth is occurring in the top, this would say almost all of China GDP growth is occurring in the bottom. But really saying that 60% of your population.. so the claim is that ~800 million people have moved into "middle class" in 15 years... And "middle class" is defined as "spending less than 50% of income on necessities".
What they have done so far is applying western technologies/business models to the Chinese market, maybe some modifications here and there for the local culture and marketing schemes, but hardly innovative.
Now, can you name a few things coming out of China in the last twenty years that are relatively innovative and influential? Maybe things like Linux, Java, Netscape, Rails, Jquery, Twitter, Instagram, etc. The definitions for 'innovative' and 'influential' are up to you, I am just genuinely curious.
These may be great products that have advanced the state-of-the-art, but how is Wechat novel?
It appears to be a pretty generic chat app similar to WhatsApp, which debuted a year earlier. Of course, almost all western products (including whatsapp) are derivative of something that came earlier too.
Oh Wechat is much more than a "generic chat app" -- it has payments and a third party app platform. Facebook messenger is trying to move in this direction too.
Wechat has a eco system that links to your checking account. Therefore, you can pay your bills: Taxi, fresh fruit from street, pre-order movie seat while you are on the way. I had an two weeks no-wallet-challenge last year in china. The 3rd day I gave up, not because it doesn't work, but it sounds like documentary about surfing internet nonstop for 24 back to Y2K years.
I used to be as sceptical as you are, until someone living in china for a decade explained to me people in business no longer exchange emails, but they exchange wechat contact via qr codes then have group work discussion in wechat.
Then, for the first time i thought novelty is coming from the east and not the west ( i live in europe).
The only last thing that gave me a tiny little bit of hope, was that even in China, the top scientists working on advanced R&D tech still come from the west. But for how long ? I would say max 5 years. I'm still betting on the next apple or google coming from china.
Arguably the Great Firewall is also something new, in that they apparently manage to exercise a measure of real control over 700M people (I suppose one could argue that Facebook does the same with it's users, though).
So last night I met an interesting fellow who grew up in Germany but is native Chinese. He is an electrical engineer. I said great, I am looking for an electrical engineer to partner with on a project, I handle the software. Bang, we get talking. Meeting later today. I think we are going to do a physical electronic product startup here. We are in southwest China, at the edge of the Himalayas, miles from the megacities of the east. I have been here on and off for 15 years, and it really feels like this is the best time yet to get capital and try things.
PS. I am sure I have read this article before, somewhat recently.
This it how it always works with everything. You "copycat" your way to the state-of-the-art and only then start innovating. Otherwise you're just reinventing the wheel. Once China completely catches up it will start it's own thing, I am sure.
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 46.8 ms ] threadthere fixed it for you.
The title is also really bad, as if China was at a given time a whole nation of copycats (although the article itself doesn't insist on this point).
People reverse engineer your product/company. So what?
Bottom line is that this is both good and bad news for China.
I was discouraged by that fact before, and wondered whether joining the herd thinking was actually better for my own life. Until I avoided the China stock market crash last year, where many others persist in their illusion that the stock market can boom even when the fundamentals are weak.
In fact, critical thinking and independent verification only get you into trouble if you publicly speak out. If you just keep the results to yourself, you can find opportunities and escape disasters before others, assuming your thinking gets you closer to the truth rather than further. Why enlighten the fools if you can just exploit them? Especially since they won't listen anyway?
> Why enlighten the fools if you can just exploit them?
If they're family and you can convince them.
The fundamentals lost their annual rise from 6% to 3%, which is still a much better rate than any other major economy. I kept my chinese investments and it's still raising with 3.5%. True rises, not artificial booms.
Still more secure than the promised 10-20% interest from monetary gambling by wallstreet, not backed up by economic advantages.
What they have done so far is applying western technologies/business models to the Chinese market, maybe some modifications here and there for the local culture and marketing schemes, but hardly innovative.
Now, can you name a few things coming out of China in the last twenty years that are relatively innovative and influential? Maybe things like Linux, Java, Netscape, Rails, Jquery, Twitter, Instagram, etc. The definitions for 'innovative' and 'influential' are up to you, I am just genuinely curious.
http://a16z.com/2015/08/06/wechat-china-mobile-first/
Wechat has a eco system that links to your checking account. Therefore, you can pay your bills: Taxi, fresh fruit from street, pre-order movie seat while you are on the way. I had an two weeks no-wallet-challenge last year in china. The 3rd day I gave up, not because it doesn't work, but it sounds like documentary about surfing internet nonstop for 24 back to Y2K years.
payment: https://www.techinasia.com/day-with-wechat-payments-in-store...
movie: http://www.smartshanghai.com/articles/smsh/how-to-buy-movie-...
whatsapp, snapchat etc still not very close to wechat on these functions.
Then, for the first time i thought novelty is coming from the east and not the west ( i live in europe).
The only last thing that gave me a tiny little bit of hope, was that even in China, the top scientists working on advanced R&D tech still come from the west. But for how long ? I would say max 5 years. I'm still betting on the next apple or google coming from china.
Arguably the Great Firewall is also something new, in that they apparently manage to exercise a measure of real control over 700M people (I suppose one could argue that Facebook does the same with it's users, though).
PS. I am sure I have read this article before, somewhat recently.