Loud Thoughts

China, Inc.: How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World Ted C. Fishman ISBN: 0743257529 Pub. Date: February 2005 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group

Those who do not play with China will lose out first. Those who play will lose out later. No matter what, China wins. It is destined to become the dominant economic force in the world and we all going to help.

Ted Fishman spent 300 pages to say just that. He loads it up with anecdotes and statistics that boggle and later numb the mind.
Ted also gives a deep insight into how the central planning really works. I cannot help admiring what China has accomplished. In short 20 years, the government managed to transform the country. It turns its 1.3 billion population from a burden into a weapon. Western countries are all teaching and investing in China so that China can use the newly learned technologies and received funding to win the same games western countries are winning today.

Those who are interested in learning more about China have lots of reading choices. Ted Fishman could haved been more to the point and less lecturing, particularly at the end.

Quotable Quotes

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In the 4 years beginning 1998, state-owned companies fired 21 million workers. That is more than all the Americans who work in manufacturing.

These people were hired with a lifetime-employment contract. They don't have severance pays, very minimal unemployment benefits, no trainings, or what-so-ever. They pretty much just got dumped on the street and left on their own.

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It may be a country's physical infrastructure that ultimately makes or breaks its competitive strength. If the more immaterial assets in an economy can easily be replicated abroad – either by building them or movingt them – then the things that cannot be moved will be what set countries apart. Old-fashioned public goods such as roads, water, energy, and municipal services will be as important as the best engineers, telecommuications, and store of patents.

A similar concept was in the book of Genome. When nutrition, health care, and education become the same, the only thing that will make a difference is your genes.
As global traffic, internet bandwidth, talent education, etc. equalize countries, social infra-structure become the only competitive advantage.

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Pekin, Illinois

Do you know this city was named after Beijing? It was said Beijing is on the opposite side of the globe and they rename the city as such.

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It is natural for countries to use their market power to gain whatever commercial advantage they can. Faulting the Chinese for extracting concessions from companies that want to play in its yard would be faultijg it for demanding what its corporate suitors have willingly agreed to. And if the Chinese usurp technology that is not rightfully theirs, it is hard to argue that the corporate victims could have expected otherwise.

The companies may have expected it, but they don't have to like it and still should demand change. But let's not fool ourselves, everyone knew what to expect.

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In a country that still bitterly remembers the humiliation of colonization, turning the tables by pilfering the property of foreigners will not cause much remorse.

I disagree strongly. This concept is dangerous. Dwelling in the past and using historical victimization as the justification for wrong-doing will only cause eternal bickering.

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Americans now pay out greater dividents to foreigners than they take in, now live in the world as renters rather than as landlords. Renter nations live precariously.

This is a familar line on US national debts. Somehow, US borrows its way to prosperity. Will this last? Who knows.

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In China, there are as nearly as many people learning English as a second language as there are people who speak English as a first language in the United States, Canada, and Great Britian combined.

Not only China has the largest number of Chinese-speaking people. It also appears to have the 2nd largest number of English-speaking people. Wow. (India should have the honor of having the most.)

Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking Malcolm Gladwell ISBN: 0316172324 Pub. Date: January 2005 Publisher: Little, Brown & Company

Since Tipping Point was enjoyable, I picked this one up at Hong Kong airport. Malcom Gladwell explores a very different subject alone the same line — how our minds really work. Unlike “Tipping Point” that tried to teach us how to influence a large population (or not to be influenced when someone else is doing that to us). This book tries to teach us how to make good snap decisions.

Like my other book reviews, I tend to do a “Sin-Yaw's digest” and that might ruin the book for you. Proceed if you don't mind.

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Malcom Gladwell attempted two contradicting objectives: snap decisions are powerful and good, but they don't work unless you have practiced the art of “thin-slicing.” If you thin-slice wrongly, snap decisions can be fatal.

“This is worthless,” I thought. I knew how to make analytical decisions and I was trying to make quick and effective ones. Now you tell me I have to practice long and hard, become an expert, before I can achieve that. If I had the time to practice, I wouldn't pick up this book.

Well, that's a bit too harsh on my part.

Malcom taught me to respect and listen to my “inner voice” or “instinct.” He showed that they can sometimes be more valuable than not. He taught me the value of not having too much information and not articulating verbally. Both can impair my judgement, particularly the important and urgent ones.

The stories about the “War Game” was fascinating. I guess I am always drawn to military strategies and theories. Many of the Sun-Tze philosophies were loudly echoed. That's was fun.

The chapter on “Mind Reading” was the most riveting. I found myself trying to move my facial muscles and started observing the TV charaters differently. Paul Ekman wrote several books on this subject and I intend to read at least one.

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference Malcolm Gladwell ISBN: 0316346624 Pub. Date: January 2002 Publisher: Little, Brown & Company

Malcolm Gladwell demystifies an important biological and social phenomenon – the underneath forces to make things “tip over,” or the way a very large number of people get influenced, either socially or biologically. This is a competence every politician, marketeer, or terrorist would die to master.
I do not imagine myself to ever try to start or organize an epidemic. The best use of this knowledge, beside as a wonderful personal enrichment (a.k.a. conversational topic), is the ability to spot the making of an epidemic and remain as an independent thinker.

The rest of this blog entry is the reader's digest version, with some personal opinions injected. It may ruin the book for you.

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There are 3 rules of epidemics: the power of few, the stickiness factor, and the power of context.

• The Power of the Few is the most interesting concept. For an epidemic to “tip,” it requires 3 kinds of people to work together: the connectors, the mavens, and the salesmen. The connector has the ability to spread messages to a wide number of people. The maven can produce the best information. And the salesman will make the perfect pitch. They can be as few as 1 person each. Sometime, the same person can play more than 1 roles. It is highly unlikely for a single person to be all three.

  What roles do I play? Who can play the other roles? When I encounter one of those rare connectors, mavens, or salesmen, how do I recognize them and make sure they are on my team?

• Even those best few people may not be able to make the message “stick” – that it becomes memorable. Stickiness is not intuitive and often requires just a little modification to the original message. The key learning point is to be scientific – test until the message sticks. The obvious ways experts design frequently do not work.
• Context stresses the subtleness of how people make decision, or the unconscious factors that we all are influenced. No one discards thrashes on a spotless street. No one vandalizes the walls of a 5-star hotel. How a message arrives is as important as the message itself.