Rapid Iteration Archives - understand-culture

Cai Lun Improved Paper

Chinese tradition credits Cai Lun, an official at the Eastern Han court, with paper. In 105, he reported his improved papermaking to the emperor, who praised him and spread the method across the country. Cai Lun made paper from cheap materials, bark, rags, hemp ends and old fishing nets, which greatly lowered its cost.

Paper existed before him. In 1957, paper from the second century BC was found at Baqiao, east of Xi’an. Chinese Wikipedia describes Cai Lun as an important improver who made papermaking more reliable and cheaper.

From Harmony to Rejuvenation

From 2004, China bought high-speed train technology from Bombardier, Kawasaki, Alstom and Siemens and built the trains at home under technology transfer. These trains carried the name Hexie, Harmony. The CRH2 was based on the Japanese Shinkansen E2-1000, and the CRH3C on the Siemens Velaro.

In 2008, a joint plan of the ministries of science and railways built on the “digestion, absorption and re-innovation” of the imported technology. On June 26, 2017, the first trains of a Chinese standard design ran between Beijing and Shanghai. The day before, they had been named Fuxing, Rejuvenation.

Small Orders, Fast Returns

The online fashion seller Shein works with a model called xiaodan kuaifan, small orders and fast returns. Beijing News reported that a new style is first made in a batch of usually 100 to 200 pieces. If it sells well, more are ordered at once.

The news site Jiemian reports that a first order takes only half a month to produce.

Practice, Knowledge, Practice Again

In On Practice, written in 1937, Mao Zedong described how people come to know the world: “Practice, knowledge, again practice, and again knowledge. This form repeats itself in endless cycles, and with each cycle the content of practice and knowledge rises to a higher level.”

Four Phantoms

DJI released its first Phantom drone on January 7, 2013. It had no camera of its own, but it could carry a GoPro. In October 2013, the Phantom 2 Vision added a built-in camera. The Phantom 3 followed in April 2015 and the Phantom 4 in March 2016. In November 2016, the Phantom 4 Pro brought a 20-megapixel camera with a one-inch sensor.

The BYD F3

The BYD F3 came off the line on April 16, 2005, and went on sale that December for 73,800 to 99,800 yuan. Its chief designer, Lian Yubo, said the car drew on the experience of Japan, Korea and other countries, absorbed a great deal of non-patented technology and digested international design elements. Its shape resembled the ninth-generation Toyota Corolla.

The first F3 used Mitsubishi engines. From 2009, all versions with manual gearboxes used BYD’s own engine. In 2011, the 2012 model brought an engine that Chinese Wikipedia describes as the first of a Chinese brand with variable valve lift. When production ended in 2021, more than 3 million F3 cars had been sold.

Small Steps, Fast Iteration

In a letter to partners published in July 2012, Tencent founder Ma Huateng summed up fourteen years of the company’s experience as a “rule of gray” (灰度法则) with seven dimensions: demand, speed, flexibility, redundancy, open collaboration, innovation and evolution.

On speed, he wrote: “My suggestion is ‘small steps, fast running, quick iteration.'” (小步快跑，快速迭代)

Updates Every Friday

Xiaomi released the first version of its MIUI phone software on August 16, 2010. From the start, it pushed out an update every Friday at 5 pm. After the first Xiaomi phone came out on August 16, 2011, development split in two. The “development version” kept its weekly updates. The “stable version” received about one update a month.