Don’t Be the Product. Own the Thread.
Meta announced 8,000 layoffs this week — and Casey Newton at Platformer reported they’d quietly turned on a system capturing every keystroke, click, and screen on employee laptops to train the AI that’ll do those jobs next. The CTO, asked if workers could opt out: “No, there is no opt out on your work provided laptop.” The whole thing is a loop — people producing the data that automates people away.
That’s the platform economy in one headline. Harvest, then replace. Amazon does it at scale. Faire does it softer — but it’s the same shape. The platform holds the relationship. The businesses hold the risks.
Here’s what struck me. Every local retailer who’s been open more than five years already has the thing AI can’t take. You know your people. You know which principal orders teacher appreciation gifts the last week of school. You know which grandmother is buying the same baby blanket for every new grandbaby in her family. That’s not data — that’s a relationship, and it lives in your head, not on a server.
So while everyone else is panicking about AI this week, here’s what I want you to see: the thing you already do — knowing your people — is the moat. You don’t need to go build something new. You need to recognize what you already own.
Don’t be the product. Don’t let a platform stand between you and the person at the counter. Own the thread.
→ Friday’s Weekly Retail Tidbits went deeper on this same question: Do You Own What You’re Building?
