God-level Trader of Rebirth

Chapter 297 California Cabin

"In those years, we did lose too many talents."

There was a wry smile on Chen Weidong's face, and he couldn't justify this incident at all.

Employ people forward, not backward.

If it weren't for the outflow of a large number of our talents overseas, which caused a technological gap in many industries, it would not be so difficult to catch up in the next few decades.

"Mr. Ma, have you ever considered returning to China and continuing to contribute to the country? Now that the country has been opened up and a market-oriented economy is adopted, it is completely different." Li Yun slid his throat a few times, and finally mustered up the courage to take a step forward asked.

"Hehe, I'm used to it here."

Ma Jiancheng shook his head slightly, his half-smile expression made Li Yun completely at a loss as to how to continue the conversation.

"Mr. Ma, can you show us your office? We want to know more about Silicon Valley." Seeing that he didn't want to talk about this, Chen Weidong could only change the subject.

"Of course." Ma Jiancheng nodded and led them away.

Through a brief exchange, he has seen that Chen Weidong and the others are most likely not ordinary people. The clothes they wear can't find any nameplates, and they are very decent. There is a high probability that they are hand-made, and they are very valuable.

Including the three people who followed behind them, the calm yet fierce demeanor made him feel vaguely familiar.

About ten years ago, when he was working in a domestic research unit, he had seen a high-level leader followed by two similar bodyguards.

So, many things are self-evident.

Chen Weidong didn't know that their identities had been guessed by the other party, and he looked at the environment along the way with great interest.

According to Ma Jiancheng's introduction, there are more than 300 small companies concentrated in the area they saw.

Moreover, many companies are semi-open to facilitate investors to visit. It is also very common for acquaintances to visit each other to discuss some technical issues.

Although there are entrepreneurial companies everywhere, most of them have an average life expectancy of no more than five years.

However, as long as a company can establish itself in Silicon Valley for a long time, no matter how small it is, it must have something special.

They all have their own way of living.

Maybe it's relying on the licensing fee of a certain patented technology, maybe it's owning a mature commercial product.

Here, what you most often hear is that a certain small company is sought after by venture capital because it has developed a certain new technology or product.

Then, through a series of capital operations, it was successfully listed on NASDAQ and became a hot favorite in the financial market.

And the company's founders and shareholders have also turned into rich men.

After walking for a while, I turned a corner.

They finally came to Ma Jiancheng's residence and office space.

A detached log cabin.

Excluding the garage next to it, it only looks like a [-]-square-meter floor area from the outside.

The exterior wall of the house is painted with white paint. It is estimated that it has been some years, and it has begun to turn slightly yellow. Coupled with the gray pointed roof, it is a very common architectural style in the United States.

"Why are there so many wooden houses in California? Could it be that the quality is poor?" Chen Jie looked around and found that almost all of them were this kind of houses, and couldn't help muttering.

Compared with the reinforced concrete buildings that can be seen everywhere in New York, this California is too shabby, and it feels inferior to the red brick houses in China.

Chen Weidong almost laughed out loud, but before he had time to explain to him, Ma Jiancheng said: "Ahem, actually, in many parts of North America, there are large expanses of fast-growing poplar forests, which provide people with sufficient timber."

"Since the last century, the United States has built a complete industrial chain from logging to housing construction."

"Many technical issues have been developed very maturely, which greatly reduces the cost of building houses in the United States. Even people who are not rich can own a beautiful small villa."

"Wouldn't there be serious safety and quality problems in building a house with wood?" Chen Jie immediately thought of the key point.

When he was in Xiangjiang, he used to engage in real estate, and he knew that even commercial housing made of reinforced concrete can theoretically be used for 50-80 years according to the design standards.

However, in fact, the situation of cutting corners in commercial housing is very serious.

Many houses will become dilapidated in less than 50 years.

In order to save costs, most of the houses will start to breed various problems before they are more than 30 years old, such as aging pipes, aging lines, anti-alkali walls, etc.

Only self-built houses are willing to spend real materials, and the service life will be longer.

Especially for some high-rise commercial housing, you can clearly feel that the quality of the house has deteriorated significantly after you have lived in it for more than ten years.

How long can a wooden house like this in the United States last?
Can't it be maintenance and decoration every three days?
"There are indeed some problems, but they are not as serious as you imagined. It can also be said to be unfounded worries."

"Not to mention the houses in America, but look at the many buildings in our Forbidden City, all of which are made of wood, and they have been preserved to this day."

"In fact, many wooden villas in the United States are well preserved."

"There are still many second-hand houses in California in the 20s, all of which are made of wood, and they are still in good condition now. Americans are not stupid. If the house is easy to break down, no one is willing to buy it. Those poor people have long been sleeping because of property problems. It's on the street." Ma Jiancheng smiled and patiently explained to Chen Jie.

"But now that we have entered the 21st century, why do American builders still use wood as building materials instead of reinforced concrete?"

Still unwilling to give up, Chen Jie asked another question.

"The reason for this is more complicated."

"As I just said about the cost, the construction of wooden houses is lower than that of reinforced concrete. Another advantage is that the construction of wooden houses is simple, fast, and the technology is mature."

"You may not know that labor costs in the United States are very expensive. The wages of workers on construction sites are not at the same level as those of migrant workers in China. Moreover, American workers go on strike to defend their rights when they are unhappy, which is completely difficult to manage."

"If there are one or two black people, then a lot of things are not about employment rights. If you are not careful, the label of racial discrimination will be put on it, and the builder will not be able to eat it. So, you get it?"

While talking, Ma Jiancheng led Chen Weidong and the others into the villa. The living room here is very small, and it can even be said that there is no living room.

There is only one big coffee-colored old-fashioned sofa and a small glass coffee table.

The rest of the space has been transformed into workbenches and storage racks, where countless electronic components and memory sticks are piled up, but most of them are covered with dust.

The entire living room is similar to a small warehouse.

However, to Chen Weidong's surprise, there was a minicomputer produced by IBM in a small room on the right!

Several of the interfaces are connected to five personal computers with different numbers written on them.

On the expansion rack on the wall, the yellow signal light flashes at a high frequency, indicating that there is a data flow passing by, and it should be a calculation activity of a certain project.

Ma Jiancheng was busy for a while, made a cup of hot coffee for all six of them, and then said awkwardly: "I'm kidding you, I usually work here, and I have a friend who teaches at Stanford University. Will come over, the two big men are not so particular, so it is a bit messy."

Chen Weidong and the others nodded repeatedly to express their understanding.

Men are like this, they don't care about these little things at all when they are busy, and only take time to clean up when they really can't stand it.

Only some women lost a few hairs on the floor and left a footprint, and they would chatter for a long time.

This is also an important reason why many scientific researchers remain unmarried throughout their lives.

It's really troublesome.

(End of this chapter)