Old Memes and China

Mostly agree with his points, but there are definitely poorly understood sociological factors that influence whether countries develop novel technologies or not. E.g. US prior to WWII underperformed in science with respect to Europe. Probably outperformed in terms of technology. France is sort of the opposite: strong history of science, but not as technologically innovative as some of its neighbors.

Climbing up the value chain starts from the bottom.

Japanese cars were once considered low quality "rice cups". Japan just kept shamelessly borrowing the best ideas from best foreign manufacturers, while simultaneously fixing their weaknesses.