What Dan Wang thinks about innovation
Writer and analyst of Chinese technology and industry, for years based in Beijing and Shanghai, best known for his annual letters and for the argument that manufacturing capability lives in accumulated process knowledge rather than in tools or intellectual property.
Everything they publish, on ppll ↗
Dan Wang did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
8 dated positions, 2020, in their own words. Our reading of what Dan Wang has said — not written or endorsed by them.
-
Their wordsI find it bizarre that the world has decided that consumer internet is the highest form of technology.
-
Their wordsWe should think of technology as a living product, which has to be practiced for knowledge even to be maintained at its current level.
-
Their wordsToday, Chinese workers produce most of the world’s goods, which means that they engage more than anyone else in the technological learning process.
-
Their wordsFirst, even if most of the workforce learns little, a few thousand line engineers become the world’s greatest experts in electronics assembly.
-
Their wordsThese hubs allow for tight connections between R&D and manufacturing, shortening the circulation of knowledge in a production loop.
-
Their wordsThat bet has failed at least in technologies that include high-speed rail, shipbuilding, and telecommunications equipment.
-
Their wordsAnd it’s difficult for any country to monopolize a key technology over the long term.
-
Their wordsOne lesson is that technology is highly path-dependent.