Takeaways

Takeaways

At the end of a business meeting in North America, someone will frequently say something like "OK, so what are our key takeaways from this meeting?" Meaning: what new information did we gain? Or: how will this meeting have helped us progress in some way? This seems peculiarly North American: every meeting has a purpose, and every purpose is ultimately progress.

In that spirit, what are my key takeaways from my year in China? And I mean genuinely new learnings, not "things I kind of knew but had confirmed by living in China."

1. I'm not an inveterate traveler.
2. But I'm much better at traveling than I used to be.
3. Much of the world smells like shit, and it's not really a big deal.
4. I am a good linguist but a poor polyglot.
5. In the spirit of number 5: I am very good at learning what but not so good at learning how.
6. Being near friends and family is perhaps the most important factor in my happiness.
7. Fulfilling daily work is probably the second most important factor, followed closely by clean air and occasional blue skies.
8. My habits give me more pleasure than my experiences.
9. I have the personality of a craftsman, not an experimenter.
10. People in the rest of the world don't so much hate America as much as pity it. This is actually worse.
11. I have totally taken for granted what an awesome place America actually is. This is why non-Americans pity us rather than hate us. They see what we used to be, and what we could be once again, and that we are totally failing 11. to live up to that.
12. China is nothing like I imagined it would be.
13. Exception to #12: Chinese food in America is, actually, pretty close to Chinese food in China.