The WSJ ran an article recently about Chinese leadership in electric car design. The focus of the article was on Chinese development management.  Instead of stepping through a series of processes, each with defined entry and closure points and separate departments, the Chinese electric car development process involves representatives from across the company at each stage and allows for the initiation of later stages earlier than has traditionally been possible. For example, by using simulation, software control systems can begin development to physical testing being complete (or perhaps even being carried out at all).

What struck me was that the WSJ seemed to be hyping the Chinese management model as something inherently more flexible and faster paced than Western management models. The storyline seems appealing, especially for those who seem intrinsically enamored with the ability of totalitarian systems to chalk up splashy achievements in whatever the hottest area happens to be. A few years ago, it was infrastructure, then real estate, then COVID response etc… Now, electric cars are what’s hot and so the admiring eyes of the technocratic set are envious of what the Chinese model can achieve. However, the world of the Chinese Communist Party isn’t one of great flexibility and well-tuned adaptation. On a macro-scale, the feedback lag problems demonstrated by their heavy-handed economic and social management make the country look like an unsteady novice constantly overcorrecting while walking an increasingly narrow tightrope. On a micro-scale, their continued failures in football show the limits of top-down control. So how are Chinese companies more agile than Western ones?

My parents built their own houses. They also designed and built a small hydroelectric dam, canned bears and constructed an arctic runway large enough (barely) to land C130s. My parents weren’t engineers or contractors or food scientists. My mother’s PhD was in the History of the Philosophy of Science and my father’s was in Operations Research. Their lives and experiences were enriched by a simple belief: if you have a good enough liberal arts education, you can learn to do anything from a book.

In a way, my parents turned back time. When anthropologists study the development of human society they often to turn to specialization and hierarchy as key signs of civilizational maturity. With specialization, families stop having to do everything from hunting to basic tool building. Instead, each person can focus on one activity and exchange the benefits of their efforts with those who focus on other activities. Blacksmiths can excel at making tools, farmers at making food and so on. In our modern era, this concept of specialization has become ever more critical. There are degrees and certifications that cover almost every possible human activity – from bricklaying to computer programming to astrobiology. It is only by gathering together in a vast online community that we can assemble the enormous array of specialists necessary for modern culture and industry to flourish.