> “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 fight against the motte-and-bailey of specific jobs being possibly bullshit jobs.
("coordinators" presumed the conclusion too much and also points to a specific thing )
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 people doing real work, and society would be much better off.
Like many populist intuitions, this intuition is completely backwards. Middlemen are extremely important! Coordination problems are real problems, and the bottlenecks to global wealth and flourishing.
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.
The problem is the value tends to be ephemeral and single use. Once the connection is established, the parties are better off communicating directly.
That’s why marketplaces like TaskRabbit struggle to generalize and grow. Contracting firms often struggle in similar ways and try to put clauses in their contracts to retain their relevance.
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.
>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.
JohnFen|3 months ago
> “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.
polishdude20|3 months ago
LinchZhang|3 months ago
(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 fight against the motte-and-bailey of specific jobs being possibly bullshit jobs.
("coordinators" presumed the conclusion too much and also points to a specific thing )
LinchZhang|3 months ago
Like many populist intuitions, this intuition is completely backwards. Middlemen are extremely important! Coordination problems are real problems, and the bottlenecks to global wealth and flourishing.
The post goes into details for why.
ToucanLoucan|3 months ago
vlovich123|3 months ago
That’s why marketplaces like TaskRabbit struggle to generalize and grow. Contracting firms often struggle in similar ways and try to put clauses in their contracts to retain their relevance.
bokohut|3 months ago
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!
LinchZhang|3 months ago
efitz|3 months ago
I don’t know why one would classify an accountant as a middleman.
AuthAuth|3 months ago
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.
linksnapzz|3 months ago