China's tech landscape is often misunderstood in the West. This essay looks at the country's innovation ecosystem, from the super-app phenomenon to the pace of hardware development in Shenzhen. I explore the cultural and economic factors that drive China's tech industry and what the rest of the world can learn from it.

The unique ecosystem of technology and innovation in China.

China

This essay explores my philosophy around software engineering. The core idea: breadth first, AI native. The generalist engineer who can reason across systems, ship across the stack, and use AI as a force multiplier has an enormous advantage over the specialist who waits for tickets.

Why generalists who go deep when it counts have an edge, and how AI changes everything.

Breadth and AI First

2016 ruined the Democratic Party and it wasnt Trump

Democrats in the Seventh Party System

BuildrFi was an AI-powered cash flow management and lending platform for construction contractors. I was the first engineer and owned the entire product from concept to live MVP. I integrated Plaid, Stripe, and QuickBooks to gather underwriting data, and built an LLM-powered document parser to analyze contracts and invoices for automated loan decisions.

First engineer at a fintech startup building AI-powered lending tools for construction contractors.

Collin Rijock

China

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Breadth and AI First

Democrats in the Seventh Party System

BuildrFi