There is a peculiar inversion happening in the halls of power, and it has been hiding in plain sight for over a century. The richest man in whatever room he enters often looks like he just rolled out of a camping trip. The founder who controls billions dresses like he is running late for a […]
Veblen’s Dress Code: Why the More Important You Are, the Less You Have to Dress Like It Read More »
Over a century ago, a strange, socially awkward economist from rural town noticed something that most people still refuse to see. Thorstein Veblen, a man who could not hold a university job to save his life, looked at the American economy and saw two civilizations living under one roof. On one side stood the engineers,
The Engineer vs. The MBA: The Eternal War Between Making Things and Making Money Read More »
There is a particular kind of confusion that hits you in a luxury department store. You pick up a jacket that looks like it was rescued from a dumpster behind a community theater. It is wrinkled. The color is somewhere between mustard and regret. The fit appears to have been designed by someone who has
Ugly Fashion is a Status Symbol: Why the Rich Choose to Look “Bad” Read More »
There is a particular kind of pride people take in being busy. Not productive. Not effective. Just busy. The kind of busy where you stay late at the office not because the work demands it, but because leaving on time feels like a confession of laziness. The kind of busy where you wear your exhaustion
Why We Value “Hard Work” (Even When It Is Pointless) Read More »
Thorstein Veblen died in 1929, broke and largely forgotten, in a cabin outside Palo Alto. He would have appreciated the irony. The man who spent his career dissecting how the wealthy perform their wealth could not have imagined that nearly a century later, teenagers on a Chinese social media app would prove his theories with
The Cult of the “Old Money” Aesthetic: A Veblenian Analysis of TikTok Trends Read More »
You can’t put Gregorian chant on your resume. Knowing the difference between Doric and Ionic columns won’t get you promoted. Being able to name all the moons of Jupiter doesn’t increase your earning potential. Yet people spend enormous amounts of time acquiring exactly this kind of knowledge. Why? The economist Thorstein Veblen had an answer,