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Sam Sneed's Reviews > Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology
Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology
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Someone asked for a review in the comments. So I'll post here for posterity.
So my thoughts on this book: I did not quite like the quite shallow style of tech journalism. A lot many cliches, not enough information, and far too much focus on personalities. Its a good coffee table book for normies, but if you are looking to dip your toes in investing in this industry, you would certainly need something more dense.
My thoughts on the state and direction of the industry: I think America and its parasite elite are certainly tearing their collective hair out over China's economic rise. They will for sure try to have trade barriers.
Coming to trade barriers, I don't think any of this is going to work. It made Americans buy inferior and expensive America made cars over much better Japanese ones. And the same shall apply to electronics.
To truly bring autarky to the electronics industry, some American firm will have to compete with TSMC. But my case is that I believe it is fundamentally impossible. You focus far too much on financialization, bad HR practices, and a society that is not built for running generational firms. What do I mean?
Modern fab equipments that TSMC employs are not machines that you can just fire and forget. You (as an engineer) have to closely monitor the functioning, adjust the parameters based on your intuition, and try over and over until you get the desired result. It is an art, rather than a set of fixed formulas. Now if Americans were to try this, they would fail because people change their jobs far too often especially in the tech industry. You as an employee, monkey branch for the best bucks. You as an employer, play financial games to raise stock price. This is obviously not going to work.
One positive of this book is that it has a chapter on Soviet tech industry, and I think you are going to see that very soon here in America ;-)
So my thoughts on this book: I did not quite like the quite shallow style of tech journalism. A lot many cliches, not enough information, and far too much focus on personalities. Its a good coffee table book for normies, but if you are looking to dip your toes in investing in this industry, you would certainly need something more dense.
My thoughts on the state and direction of the industry: I think America and its parasite elite are certainly tearing their collective hair out over China's economic rise. They will for sure try to have trade barriers.
Coming to trade barriers, I don't think any of this is going to work. It made Americans buy inferior and expensive America made cars over much better Japanese ones. And the same shall apply to electronics.
To truly bring autarky to the electronics industry, some American firm will have to compete with TSMC. But my case is that I believe it is fundamentally impossible. You focus far too much on financialization, bad HR practices, and a society that is not built for running generational firms. What do I mean?
Modern fab equipments that TSMC employs are not machines that you can just fire and forget. You (as an engineer) have to closely monitor the functioning, adjust the parameters based on your intuition, and try over and over until you get the desired result. It is an art, rather than a set of fixed formulas. Now if Americans were to try this, they would fail because people change their jobs far too often especially in the tech industry. You as an employee, monkey branch for the best bucks. You as an employer, play financial games to raise stock price. This is obviously not going to work.
One positive of this book is that it has a chapter on Soviet tech industry, and I think you are going to see that very soon here in America ;-)
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Reading Progress
July 18, 2023
– Shelved
July 18, 2023
– Shelved as:
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October 25, 2023
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Started Reading
March 28, 2024
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Mucius Scaevola
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Mar 28, 2024 11:37AM
Curious as to your thoughts given your CS background. I don’t have much insight in that regard, but I think this is clear: industrial policy is returning. The US and China are moving closer and closer to a trade war.
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So my thoughts on this book: I did not quite like the quite shallow style of tech journalism. A lot many cliches, not enough information, and far too much focus on personalities. Its a good coffee table book for normies, but if you are looking to dip your toes in investing in this industry, you would certainly need something more dense.My thoughts on the state and direction of the industry: I think America and its parasite elite are certainly tearing their collective hair out over China's economic rise. They will for sure try to have trade barriers.
Coming to trade barriers, I don't think any of this is going to work. It made Americans buy inferior and expensive America made cars over much better Japanese ones. And the same shall apply to electronics.
To truly bring autarky to the electronics industry, some American firm will have to compete with TSMC. But my case is that I believe it is fundamentally impossible. You focus far too much on financialization, bad HR practices, and a society that is not built for running generational firms. What do I mean?
Modern fab equipments that TSMC employs are not machines that you can just fire and forget. You (as an engineer) have to closely monitor the functioning, adjust the parameters based on your intuition, and try over and over until you get the desired result. It is an art, rather than a set of fixed formulas. Now if Americans were to try this, they would fail because people change their jobs far too often especially in the tech industry. You as an employee, monkey branch for the best bucks. You as an employer, play financial games to raise stock price. This is obviously not going to work.
One positive of this book is that it has a chapter on Soviet tech industry, and I think you are going to see that very soon here in America ;-)
I welcome the return of industrial policy and a more hawkish trade policy toward China specifically. I know it’s standard GOP talking points now, but we’ve accepted their hostile trade tactics for too long—currency depreciations, industrial espionage, dumping, etc. And it’s the US middle class that’s had to pay for Washington’s unwillingness to demand and enforce reciprocal trade terms, as we can see from the rise in deaths of despair. We’ve run deficits since the 70s, allowed our country to deindustrialize, and redistributed wealth upward. It’s time for the pendulum to swing in the other direction. I take your point about the finance and HR bloat. Ideally, those departments would be axed in a Ba’athist-Party-style purge, and the engines of innovation would be unleashed.
