“ The creator economy, once hailed as the solution to economic inequality and the savior of the middle class, is facing challenges that threaten its very existence.” Not to nitpick, but did anyone really believe that becoming a tik tok influencer was a reasonable career path for more than a couple hundred people? I don’t see how most middle class people would’ve been helped by the creator economy
Yes? I'd imagine there are tens of thousands of people who are credible social media influencers and content creators.
Are there any entrepreneurial professions that do not have this winner take all dynamic ? The only ones I can think of are professions with some physical constraints. Eg where the product requires the professional to be physically present. Eg surgeons, luthiers, sports therapists.
Depends. If surgeons somehow ended up working for a company/franchise then that company will hold all the power. Surgeons would have to unionize to get some power back.
I hear that something like this is happening with vets.
“ The creator economy, once hailed as the solution to economic inequality and the savior of the middle class, is facing challenges that threaten its very existence.” Not to nitpick, but did anyone really believe that becoming a tik tok influencer was a reasonable career path for more than a couple hundred people? I don’t see how most middle class people would’ve been helped by the creator economy
THIS. Just how far into can’t-do-arithmetic self-delusion do you need to be, to believe that “you need X thousand followers to succeed financially” jobs could actually be available to more than a few people out of every X thousand???
Can the algorithms be changed to prevent Pareto outcomes from occurring? Most content is arbitrary anyway so no real cultural value discovery is occurring with these algorithms IMO, just chance and feedback loops.
Most content is arbitrary?
Yeah, is the top only fans girl really 10x or whatever more valuable than the penultimate only fans girl? Same for the arts. Same for most market segments whose products are artfully differentiated to prevent the customer from commoditising them mentally.
“ The creator economy, once hailed as the solution to economic inequality and the savior of the middle class, is facing challenges that threaten its very existence.” Not to nitpick, but did anyone really believe that becoming a tik tok influencer was a reasonable career path for more than a couple hundred people? I don’t see how most middle class people would’ve been helped by the creator economy
Yes? I'd imagine there are tens of thousands of people who are credible social media influencers and content creators.
Even a few tens of thousands of people is less than 1% of the people making an attempt.
He’s right in being skeptical that “people” (who?) thought that “being a creator” was a viable career path, as the article suggests was the case.
I half agree with this article. There does seem to be a typical power law in terms of who is able to make a bunch of $ and make this a viable career. That being said, 'winning' doesn't necessarily mean having this be your entire job or revenue source. I think we're progressively going to see more 'portfolio careers' or people holding multiple small jobs. I've seen many folks have small ish followings (say few thousan…
>That being said, 'winning' doesn't necessarily mean having this be your entire job or revenue source
It is my entire job, brings 25% of what I used to earn 8 years ago (never mind what I might be earning now) and I still call it a win ;)
“ The creator economy, once hailed as the solution to economic inequality and the savior of the middle class, is facing challenges that threaten its very existence.” Not to nitpick, but did anyone really believe that becoming a tik tok influencer was a reasonable career path for more than a couple hundred people? I don’t see how most middle class people would’ve been helped by the creator economy
Even a hundred tik tok influencers is too many. They're like a capitalist version of judas cows.
I half agree with this article. There does seem to be a typical power law in terms of who is able to make a bunch of $ and make this a viable career. That being said, 'winning' doesn't necessarily mean having this be your entire job or revenue source. I think we're progressively going to see more 'portfolio careers' or people holding multiple small jobs. I've seen many folks have small ish followings (say few thousan…
> That being said, 'winning' doesn't necessarily mean having this be your entire job or revenue source It is my entire job, brings 25% of what I used to earn 8 years ago (never mind what I might be earning now) and I still call it a win ;)
Yeah that's fantastic! I'm a huge proponent of diversified streams of income, and the low barrier to entry means people can try it out with little investment and a little elbow grease. If that can bring in xx% of your full-time income I think a lot of people would call that a win.