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Tag: time

It’s Time to Dismantle the Technopoly

It’s Time to Dismantle the Technopoly

In the fall of 2016—the year in which the proportion of online adults using social media reached eighty per cent—I published an Op-Ed in the Times that questioned the popular conception that you need to cultivate a strong social-media brand to succeed in the job market. “I think this behavior is misguided,” I wrote. “In a capitalist economy, the market rewards things that are rare and valuable. Social media use is decidedly not rare or valuable.” I suggested that knowledge workers instead spend time developing useful skills, with the goal of distinguishing themselves in their chosen fields. The article took off, driven by a provocative title added by my editors: “Quit Social Media. Your Career May Depend on It.” For a brief period, it even topped the paper’s most-e-mailed list.

The backlash soon followed. The CBC invited me on a national radio program to discuss the essay; I was surprised,

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Amid US tech war, is China stuck in a middle-technology trap? Is it time to open its doors wider?

Amid US tech war, is China stuck in a middle-technology trap? Is it time to open its doors wider?

China’s top science academy has warned of a potential “middle-technology trap”, with the leading analyst who published the concept calling for the country to “open its doors” to avoid becoming stuck at a key stage needed to fuel sustainable economic growth through innovation.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences report in early December came at a delicate time when the United States has stepped up technology curbs, while Chinese manufacturers are finding it increasingly difficult to move up value chains.

“The countries that develop later usually have difficulties in industrial upgrading and transitioning to high-income countries because they lack original technological advances after technology importation, imitation, absorption, and tracking,” the report said.

The “middle-technology trap” describes a scenario in which developing countries benefit from industrial transfers due to their low-cost advantages, but face long-term economic stagnation when the advantages diminish, and local firms struggle to catch up with the core technologies

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