An American Engineer in China

Author: Packy McCormick (Not Boring) — field notes by “Matthew” (pseudonymous engineer) URL: https://www.notboring.co/p/an-american-engineer-in-china

Summary

A pseudonymous American engineer (“Matthew”) embedded in China for months to study energy, AI, and hardware companies, filing dispatches through Packy McCormick’s Not Boring newsletter. His three biggest takeaways from the free section: China in 2036 will look radically different as companies pivot from luxury manufacturing toward owning brands and battery companies become grid and datacenter operators; China is deeply heterogeneous and resists reductive stereotypes; and China is big in a way that has to be physically experienced — the Greater Bay Area alone has more skyscrapers above 100m than all of North America and Europe combined. The piece highlights Shenzhen as a technology-first city where EVs dominate, foreigners cannot break into the manufacturing ecosystem, and the cultural distance from the US is visceral.

Connections

• China — the central subject; observed as vastly larger and more heterogeneous than most American framings allow
• Shenzhen — the “tech-bro city” at the center of China’s hardware manufacturing ecosystem, home to the Huaqiangbei electronics market
• Manufacturing — a key theme: foreigners cannot successfully run ODMs; China’s manufacturing culture is closed to non-Han Chinese operators
• Electric Vehicles — EVs dominate Shenzhen’s streets; very few gas cars visible, with Didi as the primary transport layer
• Hardware — the broader hardware and deeptech ecosystem Matthew is embedded in, including battery companies pivoting to grid and datacenter infrastructure
• Packy McCormick — the author/publisher framing and distributing Matthew’s field notes through Not Boring