> If every single one of your competitors is systematically undervaluing entire classes of potential workers, dontcha think that just maybe there's an opportunity to be had there?
This is a common line of thought that I find myself having. I suspect it's a common fallacy, although I've never heard a name for it.
I call it "being too clever again by half". The idea that when others zig, I should zag. Or that any status quo structure has inefficiencies.
My reality is that zig/zag concept only works in certain situations. It'd be interesting to think more about the conditions for those situations, because then I could readily identify them.
In this situation, it's possible that your competitors are undervaluing an entire class of workers simply because that class of workers does not have value to them. If there are no technical, talented, black female engineers in the Valley, maybe the market isn't intentionally ignoring them -- it's just unable to find them.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but sometimes the status quo is an efficiency shortcut as well as being efficient.
Actually, a company called Andela is going to make hundreds of millions off of this inefficiency. It's focused on finding Nigerians who have top 2% IQ globally and teaching them to code. Labor arbitrage. Check them out.
This is a common line of thought that I find myself having. I suspect it's a common fallacy, although I've never heard a name for it.
I call it "being too clever again by half". The idea that when others zig, I should zag. Or that any status quo structure has inefficiencies.
My reality is that zig/zag concept only works in certain situations. It'd be interesting to think more about the conditions for those situations, because then I could readily identify them.
In this situation, it's possible that your competitors are undervaluing an entire class of workers simply because that class of workers does not have value to them. If there are no technical, talented, black female engineers in the Valley, maybe the market isn't intentionally ignoring them -- it's just unable to find them.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but sometimes the status quo is an efficiency shortcut as well as being efficient.