You Got Darwined
A conversation I had 20 years ago sparked a heated debate. I was speaking with a friend of mine in Canada of Polish descent. I told him that his job in manufacturing—and the reason why everyone around him seemed to have some kind of quirk—was a consequence of not moving up the value chain. I specifically told him, those jobs are not for you. They are part of the excess forms and iterations of dumping coming from the East—whether through migration, trade, or even intellectual property.
The East is a Dump
The entire model of the East revolves around dumping everything, which deflates value and drives things down to the lowest common denominator. In fact, even within the East itself, this is a standard business practice.
Meanwhile, in the service-oriented West, we must strive to be much more. The burden of responsibility is to transcend replication. Anything that can be easily duplicated and requires minimal thought is at risk of being undercut by excess dumping. As a result, that very pressure should push individuals to operate at a higher echelon—if they don’t want to be Darwined out.
The Commonwealth and Middle America’s fixation on tangible hard assets, such as real estate and natural resources, has anchored their economies for so long that, when a trade war ensues, they have no unique selling proposition (USP).
USP
One of my biggest heuristics is to quickly assess the level of intelligence and ingenuity required to perform a task. If I sense the barrier to entry is too low, I pivot to something else.
This is the primary reason I focus on understanding and exploiting market efficiencies and inefficiencies in the largest and most liquid instruments in the world. I know that most have already been Darwined out, and those who remain are the few—which makes for extremely good company.
The accessibility may be there, but the ingenuity required to do it well becomes extremely niche and meritocratic. This is why soccer (football) is beloved worldwide—it has a low barrier to entry, as anyone can get a ball and kick it, but only a few reach an elite level.