By: Chris Miller

A few weeks back, when I was in Dallas, I got a chance to meet up with my friend from yesteryears – Rashmi Mathur. She has been an executive at Texas Instruments (TI) for over three decades. We were discussing the state of TI today and, in general, the state of chip manufacturing worldwide. I find her very engaging in conversation.

She encouraged me to read this book. This was a great read if any of you are interested in the science, manufacturing, or geopolitical realities of chip-making.

The ubiquitousness of the humble chip is not readily realised by us. Most everything we use today has some chips in it – from coffee maker to dishwasher to remote to some of the blinking Christmas lights I put on yesterday. Most cars have 1,000 to 3,500 chips in them. Every year, the world produces more than 1.2 trillion chips!! That is like 150 chips per man, woman, and child… every year!!

Some of the more fascinating things I learnt included the fact that TSMC has technology that can create those layers on the chips that are 2 atoms thick! Two atoms!! That is a fraction of what the coronavirus looked like.

The book takes the reader through the history of chip making and how concentrated chip manufacturers and the manufacturers of machinery (such as lithography) used by chip manufacturers are. Sometimes, there is only one or two such manufacturers.

The most absorbing part was understanding the race between China and the USA on the chip front. And how Taiwan is squarely in the middle of all this.

The only disappointing part for me is that the book, while explaining the stranglehold the USA has on certain parts of chip manufacturing (e.g. software for those machines), did not delve into how China has quietly built up a monopoly on the rare earth minerals (or rather the refineries for those minerals) that are required for chip making. And successfully used that recently to shake off some US tariff threats on the chip trading front.

Would certainly recommend this book.

This book is a bit different from Gladwell’s other books. In fact, the book is an anthology of nineteen real-life stories in which the author seeks to draw out key lessons and insights.

Part One is all about how obsessives, pioneers, and other varieties of minor genius create endurable products and ideas. This goes from Chop-a-matic to women’s hair dye, birth control pills, and how dogs are tamed. There is a chapter about Nassim Taleb and how he was able to get past our biases about applying agency to outcomes.

Part Two is about theories, Predictions, and Diagnoses. This part was a bit more intriguing to me. In the Enron story, the author shows how, unlike the Watergate scandal, Enron was not trying to hide anything. Everything was there in the 10-Qs and 10-Ks. However, it was beyond the understanding of any normal investor to comprehend the complexities of the filings. There was nobody on Wall Street who would actually read them up and break them down for the normal investor. This is a peril of too much information.

Another interesting story demonstrates how the homeless problem can be solved (and has been in certain cities) in a way that costs far less than keeping them on the street. But it is nearly impossible to do so because the solution would run counter to our considered moral and political principles.

Part Three is about personality, character, and intelligence. The author delves into data showing that the largest value-creating companies were actually started by people past their mid-40s, yet we somehow equate genius with precocity. My favorite topic was how our interviewing process never gets the information we really need to hire a candidate.

But my absolute favorite chapter is “Are smart people overrated?”. To be fair, I like it so much because it aligns with my beliefs. I have picked many a losing argument with self-styled talent experts, board members, and peer groups on this topic. So, there is that bit of bias from personal experience on my side there.

I enjoyed reading the book. I think you will too.