> > get good at things by doing them repeatedly and optimising > In an environment where information is shared freely and widely. The whole reason you need to

> > get good at things by doing them repeatedly and optimising > In an environment where information is shared freely and widely. The whole reason you need to do it yourself is because information does not get shared freely and widely. You practice, you learn, you know for the future. > > So of course if we build a couple of naval ships every decade, maybe a giant train line every 30 years or similar, it will be done terribly. > That's a reasonable explanation but it's not exclusive. You can still face these challenges and not do a terrible job. There is plenty of evidence this is the case. No, there is no way to avoid doing a terrible job when you are out of practice. Maybe you can mitigate some of the worst issues and outperform expectations for someone out of practice, but you'll never be able to compete with those who do it regularly. > > so far behind China in industrial capacity now. > We just don't want to pay first world wages for the work. No, even if the chinese were paid the exact same wages as americans they'ed be able to outperform because, having done this work for decades, they've gotten good at it. They've found new and innovative methods to make things more efficiently, they've invested in machinery and infrastructure to be more productive, and they've cultivated an industrial culture which makes it easier to learn and apply such lessons going forward.