@pattssun
Just came back from China, some early thoughts: Life observations: - the great firewall is not that great, so easy to get a vpn or an e-sim that has one - hongkong is surprisingly really run-down, locals have said it’s way past its prime - everyone of all ages in china doomscrolls (douyin/xiaohongshu for gen z, wechat for boomers) - chinese immigration is hella efficient and automated with face recognition (i look chinese and have a 10-year visa tho) - shenzhen has 18M+ people but the city does not feel dense at all - china loves heavy packaging (delivery food, consumer goods, etc.) - life is generally more convenient than in the US (safety, delivery food, transport, etc.) Tech observations: - speed is everything in china - for software, consumer > b2b because chinese companies don’t trust each other for enterprise deals + labor is cheap so b2b software can just be built in-house - chinese VCs are super risk averse, that’s why the US is still the king of 0-1, while China thrives in the 1-100 (master of scale and second mover advantage) - fierce national competition, copying each other is a given, most industries seem winner-takes-all - chinese app UIs maximize optionality, that’s why they feel so dense and chaotic - big culture of after-lunch naps in the workplace - big companies have special trade schools right next to their factories to create a direct pipeline of loyal specialized workers