Now, there’s a clear sense of fragmentation when we talk about making money.
The young man believes inAIInternet, privateIPThe most important features of these things are:Low marginal cost: 10,000 copies after one e-book is completed, with little cost added; once one software development is completed, a large number of users can be served simultaneously.
But if we interview someone who really has money, we’ll find another completely different world.
One is…Traditional entrepreneursThey accumulate wealth through manufacturing, real estate, trade, energy, catering, logistics, etc.
The other is more typical.Capital OwnerThey hold land, business equity, channels, infrastructure, financial assets and even some institutional advantages.
The problem then arose:
Why do young people believe in technological innovation and low marginal costs, while many truly rich people still earn from resources that look “old”?
The answer might be:
The bottom logic of earning money has not changed fundamentally. The real change is the most scarce factor of production in different times.
The most important resources during the industrial revolution gradually shifted from land to machinery, factories, capital, railways, and energy. The first to gain wealth was not the workers who operated the machines, but the people who owned the factories, railways, coal mines and capital.
After the Internet revolution, the cost of copying software and information is near zero. Initially scarce is technology and network infrastructure, then really scarce is becoming.User portals, platforms, flows, data and network effectsSo the biggest winner is not just the programmer, but the biggest winner.Google、Amazon、MetaSuch companies have platforms and user relationships.
AIThe revolution is repeating similar processes.
If the cost of software development, design, analysis, content production decreases in the future90%, then codes, pictures, scripts themselves become less scarce.
What really adds up is that:
Clients, channels, trust, brand, exclusive data, real industry experience, energy, land, numeracy infrastructure and organizational capacity.
In other words, there is a common pattern in every productivity revolution:
When a capability is made cheap by technology, wealth is transferred to resources that are still scarce, difficult to replicate and able to control the entry to the transaction.
It also explains why some older businessmen seem so relaxed.
They may be drinking tea, playing cards, throwing a few tenders today, but they really have the customer, supplier, credit, channel and network of relationships that have accumulated over the past decades.
A young man might understand.AIKnowledge of globalization, of many business theories, but that knowledge does not automatically equal assets.
The knowledge is available in a few months.Customer relations, credit, channels and ownership need to be accumulated over the long term.
That’s the core of intergenerational fragmentation.
Young people have the advantage of being knowledge-renewed, equipped and productive; older people have the advantage of having completed the accumulation of assets and relationships.
So the problem is not that young people are “not smart enough” but that two generations are in a different position.
Young people often sell their jobs:
Yes.SQLYesPython, design, write codes.
Another group already has a system that automatically generates cash flows.
That is why the future is really important, not just:
“What skills should I learn?”
It is:
“Can I gradually transform my skills into what I own?”
This path is usually:
Selling skills to earn income before working to understand a business; understanding customers, supply chains, profits and real demand; building industrial relationships; discovering recurring problems; and finally using technology and technologyAIAddress these issues by building products, customer relationships and cash flows.
So…AIThe most alarming misperception of the times is to think that:
Yes.AIIt is in itself a competitive advantage.
If everyone can use it,AIWell…AIIt will soon become an infrastructure.
The real competitive advantage is going back to something that is harder to replicate:
Who has customers, who has trust, who has channels, who controls scarce resources, who owns assets.
The technological revolution has been changing the form of earning money, but not the logic of the bottom of wealth.
In the industrial revolution, wealth flows to the owners of machines, capital and infrastructure.
In the Internet revolution, wealth flows to platforms, to user portals and to owners of network effects.
AIIn the revolution, wealth is likely to continue to flow to those who have control.Clients, data, energy, brands, channels, organizations and ownershipMan.
So what really deserves to be asked is not “any future occupation will never be replaced”.
It is:
What is the next truly scarce thing when a certain productive capacity is no longer scarce?
And more importantly:
How do I move from being a skilled person to being a person with resources, clients and assets?
That’s probably the only young man in town.AIThe issue of wealth, which the times really should think about, is a question of wealth.