I just got back from China, and I’ve got one thing to say: watch out—Chinese people work hard. I don’t mean “hustle culture” hard. I mean 996, eat-sleep-code-repeat, build-an-empire hard.
There’s a kind of raw intensity there. Not performative. Not vibes. Just velocity. Factories running all night. Startups pushing updates daily. Engineers who learn AI frameworks faster than we debate which one to use.
It’s not perfect—yes, there’s censorship, yes, there’s surveillance—but when it comes to getting things done, they’re not playing around.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., we’ve gotten comfortable. Our brightest minds are busy optimizing ad click-throughs (myself included) and doomscrolling on apps they built themselves. Our policies are slow. Our incentives are bloated. Entitlements are growing while urgency shrinks.
This isn’t an anti-America post. I love America. But I want us to wake up.
If we don’t cut the red tape, stop rewarding stagnation, and move like our future depends on it—we’re not just going to fall behind.
We already are.
But America’s superpower isn’t comfort – it’s reinvention.
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