Is "The Industry" Just Another Overused Buzzword?
So, "the industry"... give me a break. Another vague, catch-all term that's supposed to mean something profound but really just means... what, exactly?
Decoding the Jargon
Seriously, try pinning down what people actually mean when they say "the industry." Is it the tech industry? The entertainment industry? The museum of science and industry chicago? The auto industry news today? Or is it just some amorphous blob of "stuff that makes money"? It's like saying "the economy"—broad enough to cover everything, specific enough to mean nothing.
I looked up the industry definition. It's a group of businesses that provide similar products or services. Okay, that's helpful...not. You could say a hot dog stand and SpaceX are both part of "the industry" because they're both "businesses." Ain't that a kick in the head?
And don't even get me started on the "industry plant" conspiracy theories floating around the music industry news. The idea that some artists are manufactured from the ground up by shadowy corporate overlords. Is it true? Maybe. Does it matter? Probably not. The music industry is a beast.
The hotel industry news is probably a different beast entirely. And I'm sure the film industry news has its own flavor of crazy.
The AI-ification of Everything
Lately, "the industry" seems to be shorthand for "anything touched by AI." Suddenly, every sector—from the cottage industry to the semiconductor news today—is being "disrupted" (ugh, I hate that word) by algorithms and machine learning. I see the phrase "ai news today" way too much.
Here's my question: Are we actually innovating, or just automating ourselves into oblivion? Are we creating new value, or just finding fancier ways to lay people off? I saw some guy on LinkedIn talking about how AI is going to "revolutionize the service industry." Yeah, by replacing all the servers with robots. Great.
I guess I'm just tired of the hype. Tired of the breathless pronouncements about how "the industry" is changing everything. Then again, maybe I'm just getting old. Or maybe the city of industry is just not as cool as everyone says.
The Illusion of Control
The thing that really bugs me is the way "the industry" is used to create this illusion of control. Like there's some grand, unified force steering the ship, making all the decisions. Captain of industry, my ass.
Let's be real: it's just a bunch of competing interests, scrambling for scraps, making it up as they go along. No one's in charge. It's chaos. Glorious, messy, terrifying chaos.
I wonder, is it the same kind of chaos over at industry city?