It is difficult to recalibrate incentives to reflect this changing reality. Often, companies respond by enforcing greater credentialism, trying to ensure that everyone is a worthwhile contributor. That could involve looking for an Ivy League education or a standout GitHub profile. Either way, companies are more likely to look for ex ante signals of quality and less likely to take chances on true outsiders, because if the outsider isn’t pulling their weight, it might not be evident for a long time.
Working in ever larger teams, often enabled by technology, is a fundamental feature of contemporary life. And yet the broader social and economic implications of this trend are rarely discussed — especially when, as will become increasingly common, one of the collaborators is technology itself.
Consider business. For decades now, big businesses have been on the rise in the US, which means employment in large corporations that use a team approach is increasingly likely. One effect of this is that individual outputs are harder to measure. If a product does well, it is often not clear who should get the credit, because the inputs of so many people were involved in creating it.
