My reaction to Dan Wang’s “Breakneck” relates to this Rather than his lawyer versus engineer dichotomy, I see China and US post 1980 having aligned themselves along techno-industrial versus cultural revolution Each civilization found itself on the opposite side of the equation in the early to mid-20th century. The US was firmly focused on economic reform, while China was fighting this war for its civilizational soul. That culminated in the madness of the late 60s and 70s and they reversed course in short order (within a decade) Since the 60s, US politics has revolved around *our* cultural revolution, which has never resolved You see an echo of this below: Americans imagined massive technological progress, but socio-cultural stasis, whereas now we imagine ever-expanding cultural innovation but material stagnation