Esoteric to exoteric

The advent of computers and the transformation of technological knowledge

Today I will introduce one more concept critical for understanding of how the manufacturing industry has evolved over the last few decades. It is the shift of technological knowledge from esoteric to exoteric.

In the pre-computer/early computer era, manufacturing used to be mysterious, esoteric

To visualize the vibe of the pre-2000 industry, imagine the atmosphere of magic, mysticism, enigma. That would be not very far from truth.

To convey my point, I will give you one simple, straightforward example. The train car production.

Train production is a very, very rare example of a Russian machinery industry that survived through the post-Soviet collapse. Of course, it contracted. Of course, it suffered losses. Still, it made it through, while most of the Soviet machinery sector was simply wiped out.

The year 2003. You a private investor who just bought an old Soviet train car plant. There's a positive surprise. The plant you have purchased is actually making trains, and selling them, for money. Unbelievable.

(As I said, it was not the case for most Soviet machinery plants)

In a heavily railroad centric country, the rolling stock producers had more or less guaranteed demand on the entire 1,520s mm gauge space (red). Demand that could not be that easily satisfied by competitors from the 1,435 mm countries (black), such as China.

So, they survived.