Hangul is the most sublime form of writing system ever invented. Imagine otherwise memorising thousands of pictographs like an ancient Sumerian. Or imagine having to memorise the pronunciation of words instead of just knowing from the written form.
Absolute disgrace that the Foreign Service Institute in the US thinks Korean is the hardest language, while random European girls are learning it in six months from watching kdrama and kpop.
This is pretty cool
Definitely think Japanese people are less popular in Beijing than say in Shanghai or Dalian. That said, kind of a weird move to go from Beijing to Washington DC? Also for your main anecdote to be an unverifiable interaction with a byd driver?
Tbh Chinese trust of foreign journalists is probably higher than American trust of Chinese scientists atm.
Attended a niche semiconductor conference in Taipei for fun a few months ago and it is basically a giant room of SMEs that make arcane precision parts or processes. The family offices that invest in this stuff are third generation galaxy autist brains. Their grandparents, parents, all do factories. Precision manufacturing requires such a unique combination of soft sales (explaining why others above or below you in the supply chain should use you) and engineering innovation. It really only works if you have a culture that radically rejects focusing on financialisation, consumer market, branding, etc.
There are some interesting parallels between humanoid robotics manufacturers and smart contract chains. The firms making the robots are offering them at discounted prices to app developers whether startups or schools. They fly out technicians to fix your robots when they break. They need teams to submit data and test the product. This subsidisation in theory will allow projects to try out specific use cases for relatively low capex. This is all similar to what happened on layer1 protocols in crypto.
It is probably a year away but something like a defi summer of consumer robotics built on infra like unitree is coming.
The subtle problem with locales catering to tourism is that eventually a new generation grows up believing that the only way to make money is to earn it from people visiting their hometown for a short period of time.
If the tides change, it can render a decade of work obsolete.
It also leads, ironically, to mediocre tourist experiences. Over-development creates artificial stuff and destroys existing natural attractions.
Spent some time in Dalian recently.
Absolutely gorgeous and magnetic place. Parts feel like St Petersburg. The walking area of the city feels like San Francisco, with plenty of preserved Japan-era buildings. The newer parks are spacious and Soviet-sized. This is some of the cleanest air of any major Chinese city.
Cost of living is maybe 20% of Beijing. Most young people are working at SOEs. Main economic drivers are precision manufacturing for shipyards and industrials. SK Hynix just bought out Intel’s flash memory fab. Not that many Koreans on the streets but you can feel yourself becoming maybe 1% more Korean as you roam around. This area was the og manufacturing hub of China, benefitting from the earliest industrial infrastructure on the mainland.
People are excited about Dalian becoming the top hydrogen pipeline port, the other competitor being Qingdao. Seafood is another large driver, although to be frank the umi is much better in Japan still.
Property market is weak but condos are full. The market has a number of 40year leasehold offerings that are maybe 5 years in and down maybe 50%+. Construction quality is surprisingly high all around.
South Korea and Taiwan economies are both insanely well positioned for the new paradigm. Full western supply chain integration, full access to mainland manufacturing, low birth rate and immigration so no welfare burden, self-referential pop culture so no pressure to go overseas, no dependence on tourism.
The bodybuilder barters labor for free room and board, gym, peptides.
This type of arrangement is common at ski resorts. Instructors accept low wages in return for room and board, free lift passes, and free instruction from better instructors.
I think abg has taken on a different meaning among fobs in the bay area for a couple main reasons.
Fobs are unaware of the etymology and poorly educated on the aesthetics. What they’ve done is broken down the term piecewise: e.g. asking themselves, am I asian? Am I baby? Am I girl?
Secondly, fobs think possibly all Asian American women can become abgs. They think going to the beach without an umbrella makes them an abg, or drinking boba, or playing LoL. Being social as opposed to studying, is abg. Listening to English music is abg. Saying hi to strangers is abg. Using instagram is abg.
The idea of the abg ai cmo, however, is actually a novelty. It is at its core a fob, almost aspirationally-honeypot, identity. She has to be smart enough to be in ai, yet hot enough to use her looks to do marketing. This is why sf mids aspire to be considered abgs, and why groups of them are creating abg meetups.
The biggest bull case for humanoid robotics is anti-immigration. These robots will end up doing things that humans can do too, but even if they do them worse, many people would still prefer them over immigrants.
China loves robotics for this very reason. If you combine classical Han eugenics (namely the impulse to not have kids until 7 figs liquid) with general purpose humanoid robots, then you end up with zero need for unskilled immigration.
Solid thoughts. SF mids are trying to identify as ABGs while having little in common with them.
Here are some basic litmus tests:
1) have you dated multiple asian guys in the same friend group
2) have you dyed your hair
3) do you have tattoos
4) can you pass as viet
5) do ppl suggest you become a stripper
You need 3 of 5 here minimum.
Problem with this poll is it is in English and the colours map to America’s polarised left-right politics. Run it again with orange and brown buttons and the results would be different.
Wmaf is studied by Oxford
Amwf is studied by Cambridge
