Every year I spend a couple of hours reading Dan Wang’s annual letter, and he never disappoints.

It’s one of the rare pieces of online writing that combines depth of detail, global sweep, and a literary sensibility.

It also stands out for his willingness to be critical and clear eyed without seeming partisan.

One illustration of the effort he puts into the piece is that he retypes the final draft of roughly 25,000 words, not to line edit, but to experience it in one long arc as the reader will.

My main takeaways:

SILICON VALLEY AND CHINA: Silicon Valley and the Chinese Communist Party are presented as oddly similar: serious, centralized, and largely humorless. Both speak in flat bureaucratic language or in grand, end-of-the-world prophecy. Their influence stems from relentlessness and self-belief.

MERITOCRACY AND NARROWNESS: Silicon Valley is described with genuine admiration as one of the most meritocratic places in the world. It rewards talent, speed, and technical ability with unusual openness, especially for immigrants.
At the same time, this intensity can narrow horizons, privileging obsessive focus over breadth of judgment.

CHINESE INNOVATION: The familiar idea that China only “scales” Western inventions is dismantled. Innovation appears not just in labs, but on factory floors, in tooling decisions, and in constant iteration.

INDUSTRIAL ELECTRIFICATION: China’s real momentum is in electrification, batteries, motors, magnets, and machines.These pieces reinforce one another, creating a dense industrial ecosystem rather than isolated breakthroughs. AI enters the story as an amplifier, not the foundation.

AI AND SOCIAL STABILITY: The essay treats sweeping claims about AI fixing everything with skepticism. Wang dwells on nearer-term effects: synthetic media, emotional attachment to machines, and attention erosion. The worry is not collapse, but destabilization before material gains.

TRUMP: Trump appears less as an aberration than as a stress test for American institutions. His presidency exposes weaknesses in manufacturing, alliances, and long-term planning. At the same time, it reflects a country still restless and oriented toward growth.

NEW YORK AND SAN FRANCISCO: New York is portrayed as dense with history, institutions, and cultural memory. San Francisco feels lighter, stranger, more earnest, and more willing to wager on the future. One city curates legacy; the other destiny.

WASHINGTON AND CHINA: Washington pundits expect China to fail under its own weight. Political collapse becomes a comforting expectation rather than a serious forecast. This mindset risks encouraging passive policies.

EUROPEAN SELF-ASSESSMENT: Europe is described with affection and concern: beautiful cities, high quality of life, low momentum. Cultural confidence coexists with economic drift and technological vulnerability.