Looking Back at 2023

It is December again. The year has gone by so fast. Where did all the time go?

So I think we should spend some time and look back at the Asianometry channel in 2023.

Popular videos. Videos I thought would be more popular. And big themes I noticed throughout the year.

The Year's Videos

I went into 2023 with a few things in mind, I wanted to maintain a good proportion of semiconductor videos but also explore other technology topics like computers.

The year's top videos were "How China Got the Bomb", "How Semiconductors Ruined East Germany", the Crony Capitalism in Indonesia video, and "That Time the Soviets Abolished Money".

Bonus points to the YKK video, which got a shoutout by Lupe Fiasco, who made one of my favorite songs.

I notice that there was a strong focus on the Soviet Union for last year's videos. I don't know if it is because of current events, or just because the Soviet topics I chose were more "intriguing" than some of the others.

2023 also marks the first video I did about South America, namely the Brazilian computer. I was not sure how it was going to do, but am glad to see that some people liked it. You might see a few more South American videos coming out in the future.

Two of my favorite videos came out this year. One was the copper interconnect video, "TSMC's First Breakthrough", which covered the momentous move to copper interconnects, as well as the 130 nanometer node which TSMC first brought to market.

Another was the "Rise and Sad Fall of Wang Labs". I can remember myself working on this video, sitting in a cafe in Taichung, when it occurred to me that this one was going to be special. The story of An Wang, who is basically forgotten today, is inspiring and should be told more widely.

To be honest, I am still not sure how a video does when I release it. In the end, I am just still doing the same thing. Focusing on what things happen to interest me. I did every video because I enjoyed the topic, so in reality all of these are my favorites.

These Should be More Popular

I did a few videos in 2023 that I thought should have done better. This video won't do as well as any of the others, but I