So, at the end of the day, the Chinese folks still showed up in the comments. Classic.
Something that's always bugged me is how stable — or really, unstable — U.S. policy actually is, and whether American manufacturing can keep up long-term. Like, can the U.S. actually get its act together and align federal and state-level industrial policies for five-plus years straight? Not just talk about it, but actually stick with it — helping startups sort out land use and tax stuff.
And another thing — can the U.S. even supply the basic components and intermediate goods it needs? Like, before we even start talking about motor shortages, you've gotta have enough rare earth magnet production happening on American soil. A few scattered workshops here and there ain't gonna cut it. What you actually need is a real, systematic supply network — built from the ground up.
Great article, Kylie, thanks. I'm ok with using the Philippines as a temporary stopover on the way to American self sufficiency, but let's not just transfer our dependency from one foreign country to another. Eventually it all needs to come home.
So Westmag thinks we can reduce costs in the US by building at scale and not tinkering too much with the design. Atlas thinks custom design is important, but believes in offshoring to cut costs.
What we really need to rethink is American manufacturing. If the machines that build the machines are still made in China, it's no good. We need to build autonomous, robotic manufacturing that will allow low-volume, custom parts to be built in the US without an exhorbitant premium.
I come from a family of Detroit motor heads and engineers, I am very pleased to read of the work being done by Westmag and the return to hands on American production. I also understand the Atlas philosophy and reading this article I have to wonder: What's in the middle? I like the idea of an international collaborative process and I like the idea of American ingenuity. I have no doubt that both of these startups have guys just as smart as my dad but he was limited by his America first last and always philosophy. The young guys at Westmag are no doubt more sophisticated than that but the article seems to want to color them in red, white and blue for the sake of comparison with the conjecture of a larger color palette of international Atlas. This is a crucial point. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the article, I liked the fact it was written by a woman but the reporting strategy disappointed. I love the work Core Mass is doing in reporting on the innovations that impact the future but it seems to me that the it is time for the reporting itself to innovate. Show me what new thinking about new thinking looks like. A paragraph or two would do it. Reading shapes thinking. Reporting styles in the tech fields of the future must help its readers think about the possibility of the middle, which I believe may be lot closer to the thinking that is actually happening in both of these organizations. I'd love to read about that.
“In California, as soon as you get a warehouse, there’s all this temporal overhead that goes into building out a factory,” Baron says. “Whereas in the Philippines, we get the keys to the spot, we’re able to get through the bureaucracy fairly quickly, and our people are renovating the factory as soon as we get the keys, and we’re ready to put machines in within three weeks of opening the lease. Which I don’t think would be possible, frankly, in California.”
I understand that they want to build manufacturing in the US, which is harder than building in Asia, but why do they then also build it in California, which is harder than in the general US.
So California < US < Asia
Why skip one level of difficulty?
Just build in Texas first and if you're still being bored after that, try doing it in California.
So, at the end of the day, the Chinese folks still showed up in the comments. Classic.
Something that's always bugged me is how stable — or really, unstable — U.S. policy actually is, and whether American manufacturing can keep up long-term. Like, can the U.S. actually get its act together and align federal and state-level industrial policies for five-plus years straight? Not just talk about it, but actually stick with it — helping startups sort out land use and tax stuff.
And another thing — can the U.S. even supply the basic components and intermediate goods it needs? Like, before we even start talking about motor shortages, you've gotta have enough rare earth magnet production happening on American soil. A few scattered workshops here and there ain't gonna cut it. What you actually need is a real, systematic supply network — built from the ground up.
Great article, Kylie, thanks. I'm ok with using the Philippines as a temporary stopover on the way to American self sufficiency, but let's not just transfer our dependency from one foreign country to another. Eventually it all needs to come home.
So Westmag thinks we can reduce costs in the US by building at scale and not tinkering too much with the design. Atlas thinks custom design is important, but believes in offshoring to cut costs.
What we really need to rethink is American manufacturing. If the machines that build the machines are still made in China, it's no good. We need to build autonomous, robotic manufacturing that will allow low-volume, custom parts to be built in the US without an exhorbitant premium.
You know, technically it is not stealing if we take back technology which China stole from us.
I come from a family of Detroit motor heads and engineers, I am very pleased to read of the work being done by Westmag and the return to hands on American production. I also understand the Atlas philosophy and reading this article I have to wonder: What's in the middle? I like the idea of an international collaborative process and I like the idea of American ingenuity. I have no doubt that both of these startups have guys just as smart as my dad but he was limited by his America first last and always philosophy. The young guys at Westmag are no doubt more sophisticated than that but the article seems to want to color them in red, white and blue for the sake of comparison with the conjecture of a larger color palette of international Atlas. This is a crucial point. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the article, I liked the fact it was written by a woman but the reporting strategy disappointed. I love the work Core Mass is doing in reporting on the innovations that impact the future but it seems to me that the it is time for the reporting itself to innovate. Show me what new thinking about new thinking looks like. A paragraph or two would do it. Reading shapes thinking. Reporting styles in the tech fields of the future must help its readers think about the possibility of the middle, which I believe may be lot closer to the thinking that is actually happening in both of these organizations. I'd love to read about that.
“In California, as soon as you get a warehouse, there’s all this temporal overhead that goes into building out a factory,” Baron says. “Whereas in the Philippines, we get the keys to the spot, we’re able to get through the bureaucracy fairly quickly, and our people are renovating the factory as soon as we get the keys, and we’re ready to put machines in within three weeks of opening the lease. Which I don’t think would be possible, frankly, in California.”
I understand that they want to build manufacturing in the US, which is harder than building in Asia, but why do they then also build it in California, which is harder than in the general US.
So California < US < Asia
Why skip one level of difficulty?
Just build in Texas first and if you're still being bored after that, try doing it in California.