The New Status Game for Companies: Fewer Employees

That one is the fact that as technology and information play a bigger role in business and our lives, labor becomes less necessary

a small minority of the most productive office employees can now capture a bigger share of all work (and all rewards) in a variety of industries.

For one, the faster a new company is built, the faster other companies can benefit from it. New primitives create new opportunities for innovation. Kind of obvious.Less explored is the fact that if a new company needs fewer employees, because it can outsource whole functions to APIs and software, there are more talented employees freed up to go sta... See more

But put all of these clues together and a story emerges: if they really do have a high bar for mere mediocrity, but they also have the operating leverage to make a successful employee have a bigger impact on the world (and a bigger impact on their own net worth) than anywhere else, then their optimal strategy is to be a bit bloated specifically so ... See more