I agree with the core point, but I think there’s another layer of “shit” we still haven’t dealt with: prestige.
Even in examples like Michelin-star restaurants, it’s not clear that the “core” is purely the food. If you removed the star, the narrative, and the social signaling, would the experience hold the same value? I don’t think it would, even though the product itself hasn’t changed, only the perception.
As a result, the market often ends up rewarding things that aren’t actually additive. People optimize for prestige instead of what I’d call real utility, a product that’s genuinely better or cheaper.
In that sense, the product was always the same. The prestige layer, "the shit", is just what allowed it to stay overpriced.
You're right that prestige is real shit. But it's a different species. The article is about cost infrastructure that AI can collapse (distribution, code, darkroom chemistry). Prestige lives on the demand side, in people's heads, and no technology zeroes that out. Both distort markets, only one is about to get cheaper by orders of magnitude.
I agree with the core point, but I think there’s another layer of “shit” we still haven’t dealt with: prestige.
Even in examples like Michelin-star restaurants, it’s not clear that the “core” is purely the food. If you removed the star, the narrative, and the social signaling, would the experience hold the same value? I don’t think it would, even though the product itself hasn’t changed, only the perception.
As a result, the market often ends up rewarding things that aren’t actually additive. People optimize for prestige instead of what I’d call real utility, a product that’s genuinely better or cheaper.
In that sense, the product was always the same. The prestige layer, "the shit", is just what allowed it to stay overpriced.
You're right that prestige is real shit. But it's a different species. The article is about cost infrastructure that AI can collapse (distribution, code, darkroom chemistry). Prestige lives on the demand side, in people's heads, and no technology zeroes that out. Both distort markets, only one is about to get cheaper by orders of magnitude.
Fair point.
Not much else I can say there :)
Thanks for the reply.