书如其人，人又何如（回答David Rasmussen对我的书的评论）

下面这封信回答了David Rasmussen对我的《An Anatomy of Lying》一书的评论中提出的问题，并且谈了“书如其人，人又何如”这个问题。那本书是我10年前写的。

Dear David:

Thank you for your generous comment and rating of my book on amazon.com.

For your question, i.e., whether my politics is based on my U.S. experience and on profound truth or what I know to be wrong with China, I think the answer is both. My obvious and profound resonance with Ayn Rand, which must have something to do with our common experience of a dictator (Stalin for her and Mao for me) and America, may shine some light on that topic.

Since writing the book, I have gained some experience and a lot of respect for the small businesses, which comprise my clientele these days. I completely agree with your comment about shorter feedback loops. Alas, I didn't have that insight when writing the book.

Politics is a quirky thing and often cannot be reasonable. For me, the government today should focus on the educational system to pull up the bottom half, not just by handing out money, which only brews resentment. The money is there. The technology is there. However, the schools are still only offering trigonometry and algebra, vis-a-vis apprenticeship-type job training. It appears to me that when the options are available, families will make the best choice for their children. Yet, neither Democratic nor Republican party is doing anything. The government monopoly of trigonometry and algebra rules the day. The popularity of Obama is merely a show of the risk. Hopefully, reincarnations of Mao, Hitler, et al., are not the next.

Life is so profoundly and interesting that writing about it itself is reward sufficient. Seeing your comment is gravy on top. However, between lawyering and hosting a weekly talkshow in LA (in Chinese language I am afraid to an audience who overwhelmingly voted for Obama), I don't have time writing. When I was in China last summer interviewing a dissident, we talked about the lack of low level labor and the oversupply of college graduates there. When I later mentioned to the Voice of America reporter, who acted as my bodyguard (the police interference will automatically and immediately makes it an international incident), that I spend a lot of time writing pleadings and motions, he quipped: "That is also a waste of talent." In the final analysis, we all need money to pay our kids' piano lessons.

Thank you again for your review. If I had time, I would probably write about happiness, and the pursuit thereof.

Best,

Pujie

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Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

Well written and thought provoking

By David P. Rasmussen

This is a personal book filled with personal stories and personal opinions. That the writer is Chinese born brings a unique slant that makes the stories more interesting. He is obviously intelligent and obviously has seen preferential treatment to others, especially as a PhD student. His work experience is broad and deep. The book is best when it is relating these personal stories-- the first half of the book.

Everyone will understand and relate to the stories of incompetent management. The conclusions are often profound.

The writing contains the grammar errors typical of a Chinese speaker. This did not bother me, but may bother some. There were other little errors as well. Ronald Reagan was nearly age 70 when he became president, not 60.

The reference to the quality theory of Edward Deming was spot on. The key to quality is to provide feedback loops between producers and users. If one is forced to look at things from the end-users perspective, then knowledge will be gained. From my perspective, small business needs needs encouragement for that reason, as only with smaller businesses are the feedback loops short. Rather than this conclusion, the author sides with big-business Republican corporatism, ala GE, and cowboy heroes like Jack Welch, Alan Greenspan and Arnold Scharzenegger.

That the author considers Republican war policy and economic dogma to be "correct" is consistent with Ayn Rand and her thinly veiled rebuke of Russian policies. One has to consider the very strong anti-China filters that the author constructs in his view of the world, just as the rest of us deal with our own filters in our view of the world. The talking points of California Republicans, circa 2005, which the author repeats endlessly strike me as not helpful and tend to detract from his larger points. My question to the author is whether his politics is based on his U.S. experience and on profound truth or is it based on what he knows to be wrong with China?

If we come to understand that we filter out a great deal of information in our daily lives, and we often believe what we prefer to believe, then the author has succeeded in teaching us something valuable. This is point of the book, I think, and despite the politics, the book mostly succeeds.