Snowflakes and Chips: About the Rise of the Winter Olympics

Wood North Tour

The snowflakes in Yanshan are as big as a seat, but the Beijing Winter Olympics, which are being held on the mainland, make these fairy-like snowflakes shine with a different brilliance and excitement.

In traditional culture, our feelings and imaginations about the world of snow are mostly white and the earth is really clean, stepping on snow to find plums, frolicking snow fights, snow squirrels, stepping on snow without a trace or sword qi shaking pine trees and snow flakes.

Without the spirit of modern division of labor and the promotion of the modern Winter Olympics, it is difficult to imagine that the world of the snow country would be so flexible and beautiful. It is said that the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics will feature 7 major events and 109 minor events. In the world of snowflakes, there are so many divisions of labor, competitions, and the pursuit of beauty. Moreover, these events are all high-level competitive competitions in the world. Even in the vocabulary of the Eskimos who lived in the world of snow, there were only a dozen expressions for snow, such as "swirling snow", "snow that fell to the ground" or "dry snow". Why, because there is not enough activity for snow, not enough differentiation, and there is no competition based on the division of labor.

Only in the world of modern division of labor and competition, in the world of snow, there will be that kind of thrilling, undulating and flipping snowboarding performance, and there will be that kind of poetic, stretching and wild double free skating. The free skaters support, lift, throw, chase and spin under the background music, interpreting the realm of free dance imagined by Nietzsche. On the big jumping platform of freestyle skiing, Gu Ailing performed an incredible flight with a rotation of 1620 degrees, interpreting the expression of free will in the world of snow. It's enough to be thrilled.

I heard that the Americans have just passed more than 2,900 pages of the U.S. Competition Act aimed at targeting China in an attempt to compete with China in high-tech, especially in the semiconductor chip industry, and curb China's high-tech development.

Most of us can only deduce what happens in the chip world like a child imagining the world of snow from a snowball fight. But the Beijing Winter Olympics can help us "see" the logic of the development of this chip world.

If the excitement and perfection of the snow world shown by the Winter Olympics is based on division of labor and competition, then the chip world should be the same. We need to understand the development and competition of the chip world beyond the perspective of small children playing snowballballs: it is a kingdom of extremely meticulous division of labor, and here a professionalism, professional skills and imagination based on the division of labor are needed.

The division of labor is the foundation of modernization, and the division of labor is also the inevitable result of competitive strategy and competition. For the high-tech competition between China and the United States, I always say to the high school students who want to go to college, don't learn anything, don't want anything to develop comprehensively, and concentrate on making chips for the country. You can make a dojo in a snail shell, and those gadgets Chinese do; but there must be a craftsmanship based on the division of labor.

But I am still a little worried that these children cannot resist and resist the temptation and law of a well-rounded education. Because outside of school, our world of entertainment, mass media, and even the adult world is advocating a culture of all-round development and all-encompassing.

To be honest, so far, I haven't seen a truly well-rounded person. Life is limited, energy is limited, and the existential law and aesthetic spirit of today's society is the division of labor, which requires us to construct our education, world, and culture based on the division of labor.

All-round development is the ideal of pre-modern society, and the social ideal of underdeveloped social division of labor. Marx also drew aesthetic inspiration for all-round development from the ancient Greek world. Confucius said, "Aim in the Tao, according to virtue, according to benevolence, and in art." But in the modern world, everyone must divide their work to survive. You know, even Confucius, he lives in the skills of the division of labor, not in the empty "Tao". Confucius was good at driving, calculating and governing. "Playing in the arts" is his actual way of survival and perfection. Modern people should be like The Curding of the Cattle in Zhuangzi, and they must advance in the Tao. Marx put forward the theory of all-round development based on the alienation of people in capitalist society, but we must know that one of the fundamental meanings of Marx's idea of all-round development is free development. Here is the development of a unique division of labor that each person consciously has.

A few days ago, in a discussion with a German educator, he pointed out that the dogma of "all-round development" led to the overall mediocrity of former East German society. In his view, it was enough to advocate multifaceted development. Literally, "all-round development" is an unattainable and unrealistic goal. Therefore, using this "all-round development" education and culture to carry out high-tech competition with the West is a matter of seeking fish. The free development based on interest in Marx's theory of comprehensive development is a good alternative.

On the one hand, the study of ordinary English is a flashy burden for most students; on the other hand, we urgently need to greatly deepen English education based on the idea of division of labor. Because most of the most cutting-edge scientific discussions are in the English-speaking world and not in other languages. 80% of our 1.4 billion people do not use English in their own lives, especially at work. But there must be 14 million professionals in our population who have the freedom to use English to perceive, connect, and compete with the world.

In the world of the Winter Olympics, we can't find a fully developed snowflake, and in the world of chips, we see a delicate shiny chip art based on the spirit of division of labor.

Editor-in-Charge: Huang Xiaofeng

Proofreader: Zhang Liangliang