"Involution is Inevitable; the Only Way to Avoid It is to Pay the 'Overtime Tax'"

This article is Lu Canwei's 128th original piece.

Click the blue 【Lu Canwei】 above to follow; remember to add a ⭐️ star mark~

Today I read a very interesting article, "Finally, Someone Explained Involution and the Prisoner's Dilemma Clearly." It explained involution very clearly, but the comments were even more exciting. Even though the article used simple language that even children could understand, there were still people criticizing it. The most frightening part is that the author made a big mistake by trying to reason with unreasonable people.

Regarding the 996 work culture, I briefly mentioned my own views yesterday. From a personal perspective, if you are the kind of person who needs others to push you, then when there is no one around you to push you, a ruthless boss is better than having no one at all.

Why has the internet industry started to experience involution in recent years?

Today, I will mainly discuss this from a social perspective. The viewpoint in the article is that in an environment with limited resources and where individuals are indistinguishable, the 996 work culture will only make the competitive environment worse.

So why have we been hearing so much about 996 in recent years?

In the larger social environment, fewer people possess increasingly scarce resources. These resources can include information, capital, knowledge, etc. For example, everyone has gone through nine years of compulsory education, but only 4% of people hold a bachelor's degree, and the percentage decreases further at higher education levels. In terms of society, you belong to a minority group.

From an informational perspective, I can say that most of the people who read this article have never worked in a factory, delivered food, or been waitstaff. The involution in these industries is completely isolated from the involution in our environment, meaning that for us, the minority, we are unaware of whether other industries are experiencing involution.

From an industry perspective, the internet industry has transitioned from an emerging industry to a widespread one. This means that the minority of people present have slowly begun to experience involution. The industry has shifted from copying foreign products in its early years to exporting domestic products, indicating that this field has transformed from a blue ocean to a red ocean.

As time progresses, the internet industry has changed from a high-growth market to a slow-growth market. It just so happens that we are in an environment where we have access to channels for voicing our opinions, which is why everyone feels that things have become increasingly competitive in recent years.

However, other industries lack these channels for expression. Even in the food delivery industry, which is closely related to the internet, we currently only know about the terrifying route planning and overtime penalties. What about other industries? We have no idea how competitive they are because they lack channels for expression.

Isn't the offline industry experiencing involution?

Is the offline dining industry experiencing involution? Absolutely, it’s a complete mess. The lifespan of offline dining establishments is typically around three years, with about 80% closing down within that time. Very few restaurants survive beyond three years.

Of course, a significant part of this is due to inflation, which is caused by low-interest loans from banks, leading everyone to borrow money. Suppose many people in a certain area borrow money to open restaurants; their costs will be higher than their neighbors. Should they raise prices? When one restaurant raises prices, it inevitably weakens its competitiveness within the same timeframe. So what can they do?

They can only compete outside of regular hours. How? By offering late-night snacks or food delivery, creating new consumer demand. What happens if they make money? Don’t they want to earn more? They can only snatch orders from the original competitive timeframe, using promotional packages and the money earned from outside competition to subsidize their costs.

What happens to the neighboring restaurant? They don’t need to offer delivery or late-night snacks, but once one restaurant starts doing it, they have no choice but to follow suit. When competitiveness diminishes, what do they do? They continue to lower prices and engage in price wars. The result is that everyone is frantically competing, earning less, and working harder than before.

Eventually, one restaurant can’t hold on and goes bankrupt, leading to the transfer of the prime location to another restaurant, with high transfer fees passed on to the next tenant, thus entering a new round of involution.

Now, what about internet companies? For example, if you are the leader in e-commerce and a neighboring company makes money through short videos and then invests heavily in e-commerce, you will also start to invest heavily. Everyone is pouring money in, and the result is that everyone returns to the starting line. How do you surpass your accumulated advantages? You work overtime and adopt the 996 culture. Initially, you didn’t need to work overtime, but because others are doing it, everyone ends up in a 996 situation, returning to the starting line. At this point, some companies even start trying a 007 schedule…

When a company transitions from high-speed growth to slow growth in a particular sector, how do they recoup the money they invested upfront? Is there no room for imagination left? They can only enter new markets and invest money for high-speed growth. Companies originally in that sector are forced to follow suit, also adopting the 996 culture.

In the end, everyone is reshuffled in that sector, and at this point, leading players from other sectors enter as new players in this sector…

Recommendations:

Reflections from Brother Hui's voice, which have alleviated some of my anxiety.

Can our future be predicted?

Who are you?

What is entropy?

How to avoid being deceived by big shots and quickly identify whether they truly have strength in 3 seconds.

You, your perspective is too narrow...

Why do we need options? Is more always better?

Scan to follow 【Lu Canwei】, and send "self-media materials" in the background to receive two free benefits:

1. A self-media tool kit (valued at 1999 yuan).

2. An electronic version of the "2020 Wealth Calendar," containing 365 money-making tips.

👇👇👇 Feel free to click to follow~

"Looking" is the strongest support ↘