Did You Read It? Tateyama

Did You Read It? takes chapter twelve of Microcosm, by George Gilder: a ball-bearing king builds a memory-chip plant. How long to build it? Four months, when America needed nearly a year; a rival quit memory chips after one visit. Forty workers a shift make forty thousand chips each a month, six million in all. Experts said white elephant; he said logical people. Bonus round: memory chips are a commodity, and the profit is in the knowledge.

The strongest story in Microcosm is chapter twelve's Tateyama: Takami Takahashi, whose company made 35 million miniature ball bearings a month, decided a memory chip was a ball bearing with a picture on it and built a fully automated memory-chip plant in four months, when an American plant took nearly a year; four groups of forty workers make nearly six million chips a month, forty thousand per employee, experts called it a white elephant, a Silicon Valley rival quit memory chips after visiting, and the lesson the author draws is that memory chips are a commodity while the profit is in the knowledge.

On the book: Microcosm by George Gilder

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