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

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

#21

Post by russelldjimmy »

LinchZhang wrote: post #19
russelldjimmy wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :)

If I happen to think of one, I will let you know for sure. Also, remember that on the internet, only those who have an issue with something will make a comment. There is always a vast silent majority of people who would say, “this is actually fine with me and I have no issues with it” if asked. It’s safe to say your title is not bad. There will always be someone for whom it doesn’t work and the internet has a selection bias to give only them a voice.

Edit: while writing my earlier comment, I didn’t realise that you were the author. I did not mean to say your title is clickbait. I was only trying to make a concession to anyone who thought so.

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

#23

Post by AndrewDucker »

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.

In which case they're contributing discoverability. Because clearly the buyer didn't discover the original store themselves, but did find it on Amazon.

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

#24

Post by JohnFen »

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" :)

Haha! Perfect!

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

#25

Post by random3 »

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…

Your definition is off in a few ways:

Middlemen are brokers, intermediaries. Almost every job is in the middle of something including the ones labeled “real” - e.g. manufacturing uses some things to produce others. Some of the jobs you refer to as middle, are not actually middle - e.g. accounting.

You probably wanted to refer to white collar jobs or maybe just services.

Middleman are not what you think and your argument sounds off from the bat just because you use that word.

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

#26

Post by bokohut »

Ah, the term "Middlemen" of which I have personally been one in fintech as the core architectural founder several times.

Given that much of technology originates and is perfected by the adult content industry, for those unaware, payments is no exception to this rule just as live video and audio software development was directly impacted from this adult content demand. It is claimed that sex sells and I can attest 100% to this claim being correct as a movie was even made about the payment system I was foundational in building and that movie was ironically called "Middlemen". I was younger then and the personal stories from those days I carry could have a great mini series created.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Men_(film)

Stay Healthy!

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

#27

Post by LinchZhang »

bokohut wrote: post #26

Ah, the term "Middlemen" of which I have personally been one in fintech as the core architectural founder several times. Given that much of technology originates and is perfected by the adult content industry, for those unaware, payments is no exception to this rule just as live video and audio software development was directly impacted from this adult content demand. It is claimed that sex sells and I can attest 100…

Thanks, appreciate the anecdote!

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

#28

Post by LinchZhang »

russelldjimmy wrote: post #21
LinchZhang wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :)

If I happen to think of one, I will let you know for sure. Also, remember that on the internet, only those who have an issue with something will make a comment. There is always a vast silent majority of people who would say, “this is actually fine with me and I have no issues with it” if asked. It’s safe to say your title is not bad. There will always be someone for whom it doesn’t work and the internet has a selecti…

Thank you for your kind words and empathy! I appreciate it. Writing to the void is hard, and while I care a lot about improving and not being wrong, I also appreciate it when people realize that the writer on the other side of the screen is a real person, and deliver their feedback with kindness and empathy.
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