Breakneck

“I was aided by the fact that Dan Wong shared his book Breakneck with me right before I left and I read it while I was there, which was interesting.”

“But it's a fascinating read it's a very personal read you can tell that you know his life journey his parents were born there and left you know and went to Canada and that's how he grew up in the west and then he went back and so he has it's I think it's a really interesting lens but it's”

“I think the bigger complaint is that um we were naive in our trade policy and therefore we allowed huge advantages to flow to other areas and you know by the way as Dan says in his book at the same time we were actually moving to more of a regulatory state in the United States.”

“So so um one thing one thing to note that um that isn't in the Dan Wing book but I I think that we can infer from it the government every 5 years publishes this five-year plan.”

“Um, and then read Dan Wang's book. I think it's fabulous. Like Tyler Cowan said it might be one it might be the best book of the year. It's very well written and and a joy to read and I would uh encourage everyone to go pick it up.”

“Last year, instead of writing his annual letter from China, Dan Wong wrote a book called Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future. By the time it was published in August of this year, he was living back in the States.”

“Okay, back now to my conversation with Dan Wong, the author of Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future.”

“My thanks to Dan Wong for today's conversation. Again, his book is called Breakneck.”

“Dan Wong has written a book called Breakneck. China's quest to engineer the future.”

“I liked Dan Wong's Breakneck a lot of echoes of abundance as well”

“Dan Wong's new book breakneck break neck is excellent for comparing the political economy of the US and China and a lot of the things we just discussed”

“And there's this new book out by Dan Wang that I want to talk about um you know uh where where he really takes on the differences between the two countries.”

“like why you know when you see that you know again going back to Dan Wang's book he's like this is an engineering culture that has built these technological ecosystems that gives rise to a higher velocity of innovation”

“But it it's, you know, to me, you know, the reflection on what I hear you saying about China when I read Dan's book is that China is putting the accelerator to the floor in terms of innovation and it's in every single industry.”

“And when you start protecting these industries, what I worry about is you protect the regulatory grift and the the the the overly lawyering that Dan talks about in his book, right?”

“Dan, the book is Breakneck. It's a New York Times bestseller in just under two weeks. Congratulations. Thank you. Um, what is the conversation that you hope to to to create with the book?”

“And one of the framings you add to this book that I think is the meme that's become more most popular from it is is uh the competition between you know America being a society of lawyers the political class and and China more engineering and and the different cultures there.”

“My friend Dan Wang recently released a book called Breakneck, which talks about um you know, kind of like the US and China and the difference between the two countries and their philosophy, the way they approach markets.”

“There's a book called Breakneck. And I haven't yet read it, but one of my employees is reading it and recommended. He said it's an amazing page turner.”

“I actually think my view of it is much of the excitement in at least half the audience of your book is that it points out that engineers are not good at doing at running things. And I think people gravitated to to that aspect. What what were some of the things you saw or see or experience in China”

“So I spent a lot of time in my book thinking about uh the one child policy as well as zero COVID which the number is right there in the name. There's no ambiguity about what the one child policy could possibly mean.”

“And in your book you write about China never really hasn't exported the arts and entertainment very much yet. Correct.”