Why Soviet computers failed

To kick off the week, let me share an 18 min video by Asianometry on why Soviet computers failed (they have an excellent newsletter that I can only recommend too):

This is clearly a story of adjacency and feedback loop between science, technology, and innovation. But past the obvious struggle of racing the U.S. after WWII, the most counter-intuitive lesson is how USSR failed at copying. We want to believe that you can only succeed by inventing your technology, but if anything, China demonstrated how strategic it could be to import, copy and then improve on foreign technology at specific times (as with German solar panels).

Since then, China has done quite well...

BREAKING! Wentian Laboratory Module has docked with Tianhe Core Module. Shenzhou-14 astronauts will later enter the new lab module#CZ5B #Wentian https://t.co/bAnANc9mKh pic.twitter.com/USUp8frkgg
— China 'N Asia Spaceflight🙏 (@CNSpaceflight) July 24, 2022

Could it be a lesson for Europe as well? Looking forward, should we get good at copying and improving upon others?