Regardless of why communist China squandered the previous 30 years, in 1978 Deng Xiaoping turned to a pragmatic and gradual approach of "crossing the river by feeling the stones." And both books characterize the new way as being driven from the bottom up.
不論共產中國究竟是為什麼虛耗了 30 年寶貴光陰，對於其後鄧小平以「摸著石頭過河」的務實主義和漸進手法推動改革，兩書不約而同點出其中「由下而上」的自發性特色。