Challenging your assumptions: China
One of my foundational beliefs is around challenging usual assumptions, no matter how good something is running, operating or designed. It's a useful assumption because for one thing I work in the technology field and it's always evolving, but also useful because in my lifetime, the Internet happened and well, that's as revolutionary as the steam engine or electricity. What was normal before is now completely up for grabs. I've referred to this in various forms, alluding to old ships like the Great Eastern, designed with sails and a steam engine! (although ironic that now, sail is back on the agenda...) before pure-steam engines blew up the world.
One of the additional things I always find is traveling: it's why I spent 4 years in total exploring the world through my 20's. One of those trips involved a trip to China around 2005. What came from this trip was the realisation that Asia was going to be the powerhouse of the future. By that, I mean - we should treat those economies on equal terms as Europe's and the USA's. but not only that, that there was 1 BILLION people alone in China to drive that new economy. I started thinking about this when I saw this tweet:
Why do I believe this? For one thing, they're starting with a much cleaner slate: unencumbered with much of the infrastructure and pillars that we have been developing over the past century or so. As our infrastructureC starts to show its age, China is building brand-new with the latest revolutions in technology.
Lastly, there are some challenges around China and policies, in particular, surveillance. Time will tell whether this is just the new ‘normal’ for all of society (and whether there are truly any impacts from surveillance - I’m reading Orwell’s 1984 at present, and pondering it deeply)….