Dec 6, 2023·edited Dec 6, 2023Liked by Rohit Krishnan
And no group is more battered by that increasing volatility than college students. The myth of the meritocracy is so thick on college campuses you could lose a boot in it -- it’s hard to just say, "you can be the best and still lose," and expect people to just shrug and not mind their lifetime of effort chasing shadow promises.
1.Agree supply has expanded/democratized; distribution costs have tended towards zero but I don't agree that demand has a ceiling. What you're quoting is "old" media continuing to lose while the creators gain. (Mr Beast appears to have added 100m subscribers in less than an year). So the polarization is between "old"/heavy/monoculture & "new"/indie/all shades.
2.Still plenty of hard problems to solve - whether you look at health, education, energy... - so perhaps the framing is not so much demise of the professional but expansion of the professional's capability so organizations have to become more flexible, org designs more iterative - incentives, collaboration, culture will need to be rethought. Some orgs will adapt & do this well, others will fall by the wayside. "Why use a car when a horse doesn't require gasoline and can eat grass?"
While the e/acc folks are bonkers in some ways, this is a time to be optimistic about the birth of new professions, new ways of trying/ flying
And no group is more battered by that increasing volatility than college students. The myth of the meritocracy is so thick on college campuses you could lose a boot in it -- it’s hard to just say, "you can be the best and still lose," and expect people to just shrug and not mind their lifetime of effort chasing shadow promises.
There is even more uncertainty in the Corporatopia. The inhabitants are compared to those of the magnificent seven or worse VC-funded startups and the certainty of even half a decade ago is kaput. Anyway on grade inflation, some of us have democratised it too :) https://www.onmanorama.com/career-and-campus/top-news/2023/12/05/shanavas-education-director-a-plus-sslc-evaluation.html
1.Agree supply has expanded/democratized; distribution costs have tended towards zero but I don't agree that demand has a ceiling. What you're quoting is "old" media continuing to lose while the creators gain. (Mr Beast appears to have added 100m subscribers in less than an year). So the polarization is between "old"/heavy/monoculture & "new"/indie/all shades.
2.Still plenty of hard problems to solve - whether you look at health, education, energy... - so perhaps the framing is not so much demise of the professional but expansion of the professional's capability so organizations have to become more flexible, org designs more iterative - incentives, collaboration, culture will need to be rethought. Some orgs will adapt & do this well, others will fall by the wayside. "Why use a car when a horse doesn't require gasoline and can eat grass?"
While the e/acc folks are bonkers in some ways, this is a time to be optimistic about the birth of new professions, new ways of trying/ flying
So three factors:
Markets widening, which generate longer 'tails'
Automation spreading to symbolic output, which creates more volume relative to consumption, lengthening tails more
Fewer / changed gatekeepers to symbolic content, meaning less predictability in the power of institutional support to generate success
SO
Longer 'tails' means steeper benefits of success vs. failure
Lower power of institutions as sorting mechanisms
Less predictability means fiercer conflict
All of which means greater potential for unmediated elite conflict?
What am I missing?
> Technology levels the playing field for people who aren’t professionals.
This is the entire explanation for the ongoing tantrums about "art theft" as related to generative AI.