Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Middlemen Are Eating the World (and That's Good, Actually)

inchpin.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 28 posts

Re: Middlemen Are Eating the World (and That's Good, Actually)

#11

Post by LinchZhang »

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #5
LinchZhang wrote: post #2

I think many people have some intuition that work can be separated between “real work“ (farming, say, or building trains) and “middlemen” (e.g. accounting, salespeople, lawyers, bureaucrats, DEI strategists). “Bullshit jobs” by David Graeber is a more intellectualized framing of the same intuition. Many people believe that middlemen are entirely useless, and we can get rid of (almost) all middleman jobs, RETVRN to pe…

These examples are not good, almost none of those are what most people would call middlemen. A perfect example of an actual middleman would be the type of hustle grindset loser who sets up an Amazon store that sells merchandise from Alibaba at steep price hikes while contributing nothing to the product or its delivery. That’s a middle man.

Why fixate on a specific word rather than the overall idea? If the idea is clear enough I don't think it's worth fighting over semantics.

Re: Middlemen Are Eating the World (and That's Good, Actually)

#12

Post by exmadscientist »

LinchZhang wrote: post #11
ToucanLoucan wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These examples are not good, almost none of those are what most people would call middlemen. A perfect example of an actual middleman would be the type of hustle grindset loser who sets up an Amazon store that sells merchandise from Alibaba at steep price hikes while contributing nothing to the product or its delivery. That’s a middle man.

Why fixate on a specific word rather than the overall idea? If the idea is clear enough I don't think it's worth fighting over semantics.

It isn't clear enough, though. Your argument is actually seriously muddled by your choice to redefine the common usage of a word to your own usage. The viability of your title flips depending on whether one adopts your definition or the common definition.

That's bad writing.

Re: Middlemen Are Eating the World (and That's Good, Actually)

#13

Post by ToucanLoucan »

LinchZhang wrote: post #11
ToucanLoucan wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These examples are not good, almost none of those are what most people would call middlemen. A perfect example of an actual middleman would be the type of hustle grindset loser who sets up an Amazon store that sells merchandise from Alibaba at steep price hikes while contributing nothing to the product or its delivery. That’s a middle man.

Why fixate on a specific word rather than the overall idea? If the idea is clear enough I don't think it's worth fighting over semantics.

It's not semantics, it's your entire point:

> A merchant a) physically moves wheat to where it’s scarce (and valued more), b) physically moves beans to where it’s scarce (and valued more), c) figures out an exchange rate, and d) takes on risks of spoilage and banditry. For her efforts, the merchant takes a fractional cut.

This is not a middle man, this is logistics! An entire segment of the global economy, and not a small one!

> Ten people want to build a bridge. But they face problems: Who works on the foundation vs. the supports? How do we prevent the left side team from building something incompatible with the right side team? When is the foundation strong enough to start building on top? How do we know if we’re on track or behind schedule?

This is project management, also not a middle man!

Like I get nobody likes being criticized but dude, your entire post is resting on a bad foundation. If you start off an article about cars talking about how jetskis are the future of highway transportation, I'm not gonna take that seriously either, because you fumbled it on the starting line.

Re: Middlemen Are Eating the World (and That's Good, Actually)

#14

Post by ToucanLoucan »

christophilus wrote: post #7
kykat wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, you can't just "redefine" a noun to get a clickbait title

I mean, you just described a whole lot of the internet.

I mean, you can do it but nobody calls that good, worthwhile reading.

Re: Middlemen Are Eating the World (and That's Good, Actually)

#15

Post by llbbdd »

LinchZhang wrote: post #4
JohnFen wrote: post #3

Boy did this set off my pendant side! > “middlemen” (e.g. accounting, salespeople, lawyers, bureaucrats, DEI strategists). I wouldn't call any of those positions "middlemen", though. A middleman is an entity that sits between a producer and a purchaser and takes a cut, usually by connecting the two. None of the examples listed are that.

I agree I used the word substantially more expansively than some other people use it. That's why I defined it in the beginning so people can understand the local scoping of the relevant word! :) (That said "salespeople" are in the middle layer under your definition as well) The other term I was thinking of using for this post was "bullshit jobs." So titling my post "bullshit jobs are real jobs" but I didn't want to f…

Salespeople do provide a service - selling.

Re: Middlemen Are Eating the World (and That's Good, Actually)

#16

Post by OneMorePerson »

polishdude20 wrote: post #8
JohnFen wrote: post #3

Boy did this set off my pendant side! > “middlemen” (e.g. accounting, salespeople, lawyers, bureaucrats, DEI strategists). I wouldn't call any of those positions "middlemen", though. A middleman is an entity that sits between a producer and a purchaser and takes a cut, usually by connecting the two. None of the examples listed are that.

I'll be the pedant and say the word is "pedant" :)

Can I double down and say the word should be "pedantic" hah

Re: Middlemen Are Eating the World (and That's Good, Actually)

#17

Post by linksnapzz »

AuthAuth wrote: post #10

>Bloody bean counters! Mate they just need to pick up a toolbelt and do some real work all they do is fuck everything up. A sentiment often expressed by my dad as the 'bean counters' organize 1000s of people across 100s of companies and tons and tons of materials and machinery to all arrive on site and preform specific tasks in an efficient manner.

...a task done equally well during Egypt's 4th dynasty; without the benefit of ERP, Gantt charts, or MBAs.

Re: Middlemen Are Eating the World (and That's Good, Actually)

#18

Post by russelldjimmy »

LinchZhang wrote: post #11
ToucanLoucan wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These examples are not good, almost none of those are what most people would call middlemen. A perfect example of an actual middleman would be the type of hustle grindset loser who sets up an Amazon store that sells merchandise from Alibaba at steep price hikes while contributing nothing to the product or its delivery. That’s a middle man.

Why fixate on a specific word rather than the overall idea? If the idea is clear enough I don't think it's worth fighting over semantics.

I think many readers have a hard time letting go of whatever expectation the title created in their mind and then refocusing to try and understand the broader point. Not that I support clickbait titles or poor communication, but I do agree with you that it’s generally more helpful to let go of the semantic details as long as the broader point is understood. But many people choose to get hung up over the words (probably) because of an inability to self soothe the first shock.

Re: Middlemen Are Eating the World (and That's Good, Actually)

#19

Post by LinchZhang »

russelldjimmy wrote: post #18
LinchZhang wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why fixate on a specific word rather than the overall idea? If the idea is clear enough I don't think it's worth fighting over semantics.

I think many readers have a hard time letting go of whatever expectation the title created in their mind and then refocusing to try and understand the broader point. Not that I support clickbait titles or poor communication, but I do agree with you that it’s generally more helpful to let go of the semantic details as long as the broader point is understood. But many people choose to get hung up over the words (probab…

If you have suggestions on a better title, please let me know! I tried pretty hard to come up with different ones, giving time constraints, and this was the best one I had. I'm really bad at titles and this is an area of active growth for me :)

Re: Middlemen Are Eating the World (and That's Good, Actually)

#20

Post by EdwardDiego »

OneMorePerson wrote: post #16
polishdude20 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll be the pedant and say the word is "pedant" :)

Can I double down and say the word should be "pedantic" hah

Both are acceptable though. My side, and my side both work.
Post reply on HN