DPS Books

原来王家卫把《花样年华》的结尾放在吴哥窟拍，就是因为不可能。

用 Claude Code 把不同书里的内容串起来，感觉可以用这些年在 Apple Books 高亮的内容试试这个方法： https://pieterma.es/syntopic-reading-claude/

读了前面几章，黎智英真是满满的 street smart： 1. 为了获得逃港通行证，他帮助一个官员举报申请住进他家祖宅的其他申请者，最后这个官员如愿住进了他家祖宅，他也获得了逃港通行证； 2. 逃港前，母亲怕他饿着，在他的内裤里缝了一块金币；出境前，他发现队伍前面有人被搜身，搜出了身上的金砖。他毫不犹豫地把身上唯一的一枚金币丢弃，身无分文地进入香港； 3. 买第一个工厂时，另外一个买家信用比他好，资金比他充分。他跑去和人家说，自己有相熟的算命先生，朋友之前算了很灵验，可以帮忙介绍一下。其实他根本没有认识的算命先生，也没有这样的朋友经历。他去黄大仙现找了一个算命师傅，编号了故事，然后高价贿赂。最后那个买家去找了那个算命先生，听信了黎的故事，放弃了购买。黎顺利拿下厂房，然后把那个买家变成了自己的供应商； 4. 香港的纺织业一发冲天，英美分分提出法案限制从香港进口。没想到黎智英靠这个配额狠赚了一笔，先是通过调整原材料比例发明新的织物绕过配额限制，然后又通过买配额租给别人，做成了二级市场； 5. 一开始他给美国百货公司供货的周期长达六七十天，后来他决定先做白色的胚衣，然后按需染色，大大减少制作时间，而且降低了仓储压力。等到自创佐丹奴之后，从下单到上货只要五天。奠定了快消的范式，连后来优衣库的创始人都找他来拜师，还问他要不要入股。 https://t.me/MothLib/21376

终于读完了这一本书，梁启智写得平静又克制。 其实最核心的问题就是一个程序正义：既然制定了游戏规则，那么所有人都要遵守这些规则，不能不遵守规则，还朝令夕改。 和朋友聊起韩国前几个月的宵禁，ta 就自豪地说，你看总统瞎搞，韩国全国上下都不同意，半个小时议会就把宵禁令推翻了。现在总统已经蹲监狱了。 所以要问一个地方有没有希望，首先要看有没有程序正义。

原来 Dan Wang 的夫人 Silvia Lindtner 也是个中国通 https://www.silvialindtner.com

The iPhone has become one of the rarest sorts of consumer products-both ubiquitous and coveted as a status object. It is also the crowning success of the trade relationship between two countries, in which American inspiration and marketing savvy met China's millions of workers, managed by contract manufacturers like Taiwan's Foxconn, to make state-of-the-art electronics. It wasn't easy to organize a workforce to assemble thousands of components into the most complex consumer product the world has ever known. Mastering this feat propelled Apple to become the first trillion-dollar company. — Breakneck by Dan Wang

Overreliance on Chinese manufacturing accelerated US neglect of its supply side. Meanwhile, China hasn't felt the need to wean off its dependence on exports because American consumers are always there to buy its goods. As these countries grow apart, they are going to have to do something difficult: The United States will have to regain all the muscle it has lost for building public works as well as manufacturing capacity, and China will have to empower consumers by getting over its fear of making people lazy. — Breakneck by Dan Wang

I've come to realize that there are many ways that China and the United States are inversions of each other. Households save a great deal of their earnings in China, while it is really easy to borrow money or spend on credit in America. In terms of national policy, China is much more focused on the supply side of the economy: It suppresses consumption as it favors manufacturers with preferential financing and all manner of policy support. The United States, meanwhile, is focused on regulating demand, for example, by imposing rent control in expensive cities or mailing out checks to consumers during the pandemic. — Breakneck by Dan Wang

"American manufacturers constantly asked themselves whether making masks and cotton swabs was part of their 'core competence? Most of them decided not." He put down his teacup and looked at me. "Chinese companies decided that making money is their core competence, therefore they go and make masks, or whatever else the market needs.” — Breakneck by Dan Wang

I sometimes think of Tianjin's library as a metaphor for China's economy: great hardware that looks impressive from a distance, not filled with the softer stuff that actually matters. Tianjin could have focused on filling its amazing skyscrapers with better businesses. Instead, it could only build more hollow shells, while it gained considerable debt. — Breakneck by Dan Wang

Furthermore, since local governments don't have property taxes, they primarily fund themselves through land sales to real estate developers. This combination of personnel policy and fiscal quirks produces officials like Li Zaiyong who invest in glamorous projects and whose failures are apparent only after they've left office. — Breakneck by Dan Wang

Guizhou has become one of China's most indebted provinces, and it's starting to feel real fiscal distress. In an unusual move, Guiyang's finance bureau issued a public outcry in 2022 that it was at the end of its ability to deal with the debt. Quickly afterward, the government deleted its own admission. — Breakneck by Dan Wang