jonjas 's review for:

Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology by Chris Miller

3.0

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Not quite what I expected- I’d hoped more for an analysis of the current US-Taiwan-China situation, and instead it’s a history of semiconductors. That’s on me, shoulda read the back of the book- but still, somehow it covers everything and yet I feel I still understand very little. That’s partially the complexity of the subject matter, but there’s also little in the way of analogy or metaphor to help the layman understand. There also isn’t usually much explanation for key decisions/developments other than “it’s expensive” or “this guy is smart”. It’s already 350 pages, but to really cover everything it could have gone on much longer. I also feel like it barely scratches the surface of the current situation, which is unfortunate. How chips factor into Ukraine/Russia could have seemingly been a huge topic, as could the current concern over Taiwan-China. I get that it’s a bit hard to predict, but covering it in only like 5 pages seems brief. What do things look like moving forwards? Again, tough to judge, but there’s room for some theorizing there. More on exactly how/why TSMC grew into such a power would be appreciated as well- it’s covered to some degree, but given their oversized role the details seem a bit scant.

Good book overall, really opened my eyes to a technology driving economics and politics around the world, I guess I wish it just weren’t so focused on covering all the history, and instead worked on explaining the present situation more.