From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Fri Jun 21 2002 - 18:24:52 MDT
Phil Osborn wrote:
>
> The funny thing is that the Chinese I have known and
> worked with closely is that even though they don't
> believe in intellectual property, they are the most
> closed-mouth people I have ever met. It is like
> pulling teeth to get enough information to do my job.
Thats not funny, its an expected reaction. If anything you create,
including your speech and your labor, is not considered 'yours', then
you are going to be extremely stingy about who and what you expose it
to.
An excellent example of the sort of world that would result from an end
to IP: where scientific advances cease because anyone who is capable of
abstract thought is so closed mouthed that the normal western practice
of scientific openness and cross fertilization grinds to a halt.
> Often I will be handed a job to be published and have
> no idea if it is supposed to be a flyer, part of the
> new catalog, or go on the website, or whether it will
> be black and white, two color or full color, and if I
> try to get the info I need, they get angry.
>
> Every job is handled like that - and it serves several
> purposes. First, when the employee is given
> inadequate instruction - or, often, completely wrong
> instructions (but always verbally) - then he or she
> will always fail on the first iteration. This gives
> the boss a chance to demonstrate how worthless the
> employee is - always in front of other employees.
> Everyone pretends that the boss is correct in his or
> her dressing down. They know the drill. FACE is what
> matters. The Chinese do not believe in an objective
> reality.
To be expected. If the state owns you, body, blood, heart, mind, IP, and
soul, you will believe whatever the state (i.e. your boss) tells you is
reality, and you will accept that anything you observe to the contrary
with your own eyes must be misunderstanding, miscomprehnsion, or
outright hallucination.
>
> So the boss gains face at the employee's expense, and
> if the failure is great or can be made to look so,
> then THAT will be written up and the employee required
> to sign the boss's version, which goes into his or her
> permanent file.
That sounds like standard military bureaucratic practice. Saw a lot of
that in the Air Force.
>
> However, business is business and they have manuals on
> how to conduct business as war that make Machievelli
> look like an amateur. Only a few of them have ever
> been translated out of Chinese and some of them are
> even banned in China (e.g., "Thick, Black Theory") -
> which doesn't stop them from being best sellers there.
This sounds like a book that needs an english translation ASAP.
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