"The gig economy for the brain" is ex+imploding

The economics of creating internet content is exploding and imploding at the same time.

We're at the cusp of another Internet Age content explosion/implosion. Here are some early notes about what this could mean for "business" content creators.

Explosions happen when a tremendous amount of stored energy is released almost at once causing the volume to expand very fast. When something implodes, a tremendous amount of energy and matter spontaneously collapses into itself and becomes more dense or concentrated.

The beginning of the Information Age initially unleashed the creative forces of Man + a connected computer. Then it almost as rapidly coalesced into a handful of social media websites, and electronic commerce sites. Before settling into an ecosystem of internet-based services conveniently packed into any connected mobile phone.

This explosive adaptation of the internet for almost everything set off a corporate and personal frenzy that soon imploded, concentrating and densifying internet economics with a mostly new set of corporate and personality winners.

At the corporate level, a denser internet created the perfect conditions for hosting mini explosions at the personality level. Hashtags, virality, and trending content etc. Savvy personalities who stumble into a viral moment could drag out that mini-explosion long enough and extract a gain from the economics of the internet. This was for a long time the subtext of internet culture. Finding your moment and use that wedge to gain entry into, and benefit from internet economics.

Slow collapse, long rise

So a lot of internet people started to do this and the Information Age re-exploded into the Content Creator Age. The running motif throughout both ages has always been man + a connected computer until recently, when Open AI, which was obscure to all but the nerdy research class, released ChatGPT and precipitated a new explosion that is now threatening the man + connected computer balance of the information age culture.

I work primarily in business media, and in many ways, it is the narrow corner of the internet that is perhaps the most under threat from mostly computer-generated content. The threat is far from existential today but is definitely puke-worthy and likely to grow worse as artificially generated content proliferates.

It is forcing the business creator economy to implode even if most of us don’t know it yet.

Across the spectrum that is “business content” there are enough ghostwriters, copywriters, essayists and corny social media talkatives influencers that the pressure-breaking flood of generative AI cannot but force an implosion.

Like the explosion of TV-oriented content was forced to densify into PayTV, PayTV forced to collapse into internet-streamed TV and streaming services now heading into its consolidation phase, the gig of the economy for the brain a.k.a content creation is exploding and imploding at the same time.

One small effect of having a lot of content to wrestle with is that while people want stories, they also want substance, and they will be thrilled if it is wrapped up in a warm spectacle.

Demanding quality, continuity and live experiences simultaneously means raising the bar for winning. It may also mean killing or relegating much of the business content industry to the fringes. While simultaneously densifying narrative power and economic value around storytellers who represent competency and intentionality, can create spectacle and can invite their audiences to participate at varying degrees.

Win to play

For business content creators, this type of consolidation will mean that hands-on consulting and experiences will become even more important levers to pull on. A key part of staying competitive in the internet culture is active engagement with the audience. As the lines that separate passively creating or consuming content begin to blur and the knowledge component of content generation becomes more important in business scenarios, live experiences will become an even more powerful tool.

Fluffy content won’t go away. It has an important constituency. But the audience for fluff in business environments will thin out as the forces of competent consolidation, generative artificial intelligence slurp and consumption fatigue wear it down. But this will also not mean immediate victory for “deep” storytelling. If anything, doing anything with more intention and depth will become harder. And it will exact its costly toll as well.

In addition to honing their craft, the most authentic storytellers will need to manage their stage props and acquire a reputation for building tangible assets. You won’t have to be an x-brand-name publication, but then, an x-brand-name publication will probably not have to be themselves either.

Spectacle and meaningful don’t always go together. But the gig economy for the brain is increasingly demanding they travel together, with reasonable caveats.