Barbell is the right frame, and the best part is the subtext: distribution beats “best tech,” and domain depth beats generic hustle.
My only pushback: the middle is not dead, it is being audited. If you sell time and templates, you are in trouble. If you sell outcomes, trust, and weird niche competence, you become a “hidden champion” even at 30 people.
Curious for you, Jurgen: what is your litmus test for “infrastructure moat” in services work, where the “atoms” are relationships, compliance, and process rather than factories?
True. As I wrote in the Four Moats Theory: you can protect yourself with data, a network, reputation, and infrastructure. Infrastructure is obvious, but I'm not sure how much harder the other three are to dig and maintain for services work in the middle of the barbell.
The barbell is real. But there's a step after "one person does the work of twenty." It's when the AI does the work of that one person — and does it better. The question isn't which end of the barbell to be on. It's what the human at either end is actually for.
Barbell is the right frame, and the best part is the subtext: distribution beats “best tech,” and domain depth beats generic hustle.
My only pushback: the middle is not dead, it is being audited. If you sell time and templates, you are in trouble. If you sell outcomes, trust, and weird niche competence, you become a “hidden champion” even at 30 people.
Curious for you, Jurgen: what is your litmus test for “infrastructure moat” in services work, where the “atoms” are relationships, compliance, and process rather than factories?
True. As I wrote in the Four Moats Theory: you can protect yourself with data, a network, reputation, and infrastructure. Infrastructure is obvious, but I'm not sure how much harder the other three are to dig and maintain for services work in the middle of the barbell.
Did 1, Working on 2, Looking at 3.
The barbell is real. But there's a step after "one person does the work of twenty." It's when the AI does the work of that one person — and does it better. The question isn't which end of the barbell to be on. It's what the human at either end is actually for.