Yes, though for most jobs there is far more demand than can be met by the best in the world. When someone needs a lawyer or software developer, they are very unlikely to hire the best in the world.
So many of the new products I buy are designed by small teams, or in some cases, one-man operations. It's funny how we went from a single craftsman making the whole product, to massive corporations making all the products, and now the internet, with the access it has given us to information and the global supply chain, has allowed us to go back to that world where we can leverage the talents of an individual and mass production at the same time.
I think the Framework laptop is a prime example of this. The fact that a small team like that can "produce" a product of such quality is mind blowing.
It seems to me that the general quality of items has been on a steady rate of improvement again, rather than the race-to-the-bottom that seemingly every industry experienced during the 90s and early 00s.
A great point. While I'm well aware of it, is there a book or guide to how that is done? 'Global supply chain manufacturing for noobs'? I'm looking for something with real expertise and research behind it, not someone's blog post.
- Another consequence is that everyone can publish, anything, no matter how good it is. Come to think of it, in that example, crap rises to the top much more than the cream.
Part 1; make a compelling mockup, post to kickstarter etc and other social media
Part 2: bide your time with product update mockups until knock offs appear on Alibaba. Make a show about complaining about the knock offs and then return the kickstarter deposits.
Certainly not the absolute best in the world, but they are still unlikely to hire a thoroughly mediocre worker who in a past world devoid of easy global communication and travel would have only been hired into a high-paying role by virtue of the fact that they were the only available worker with the necessary skills, since sourcing better talent from a global pool was much harder.
But let's also remember that much of the world doesn't use the Internet. In the US, large segments of the population lack computers (beyond phones) and high speed internet access. I know that during the pandemic, schools in poor districts had the problem that many of their students lacked those tools for remote learning.
And for FWIW, there are exceptions where the absolute best in the world dominate the market, such as in entertainment where the top musical performers, athletes, etc. collect almost all the revenue.
