💡 How the Internet age differs fundamentally from the Industrial age.
The industrial age was about physical objects
The internet age is all about digital objects
This sounds stupidly simple but this truism will literally inform all of the rest of the insights.
The industrial age prioritises statistical process control
The internet age is all about variance amplification (its easier to make 1 video with 10 million views than 10 videos with 1 million views – Mr Beast)
The industrial age is all about 3rd party credentialism (I work at Goldman Sachs, I went to Harvard, I write for the New York times. Therefore I am important and you should listen to me)
The internet age is about first party proof of work (here is my blog with all my thoughts about this topic, here is my Youtube channel, here is my podcast with a back catalogue of 300 episodes, here are all my tweets, here is my substack articles, TikToks, Instagram posts)
The industrial age is about mass media communication. (‘The view from nowhere’)
The internet age is all about intense niches and subcultures
The industrial age is about waterfall design mentality (design to perfection and then ship a million units)
The internet age is all about agile design mentality (ship the most basic MVP you can bear and keep iterating)
The industrial age is all about input (Keynesian economics, hours of learning in a degree)
The internet age is all about outcomes (I can spend 10 hours editing a Youtube video that has 50 views or 1 minute recording a video with 50 million views)