[marginalium]
The Era Of The Business Idiot
23 May 2025
The Era Of The Business Idiot. Intro through some of the sillier uses of AI into a critique of the Rot Economy:
a useful description for how tech companies have voluntarily degraded their core products in order to placate shareholders, transforming useful — and sometimes beloved — services into a hollow shell of their former selves as a means of expressing growth …
…
Milton Friedman once argued … any social responsibility — say, treating workers well, doing anything other than focus on shareholder value — is tantamount to an executive taxing his shareholders by “spending their money” on their own personal beliefs.
Then, into a screed about why a lot of business decisions make sense in this light, even when superficially they seem silly. I liked it, even though there’s nothing particularly new.
Anthologies: Betterment, Gratification, Wealth Architecture, On Being Fruitful, On Leadership