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| 16 | <meta property="og:description" content="I've had this thought rolling around my mind for a while: I'd rather 100,000 small companies with 6 employees than 6 companies with 100,000 employees. |
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| 18 | But it feels a bit pithy when I interrogate i..."> |
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| 25 | But it feels a bit pithy when I interrogate i..."> |
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| 88 | <img class="avatar-small" width="50" height="50" style="border-radius: 50%; object-fit: cover" src="../assets/paul-2024-compressed.png" /> |
| 89 | <span>@paul</span> |
| 90 | <small>March 25, 2026, 10:51am</small> |
| 91 | </header> |
| 92 | <main> |
| 93 | <p>I've had this thought rolling around my mind for a while: I'd rather 100,000 small companies with 6 employees than 6 companies with 100,000 employees.</p> |
| 94 | |
| 95 | <p>But it feels a bit pithy when I interrogate it internally, but it also presents in my mind as self-evidently <em>better</em>. But is it a case that I'm looking for the "big" things: compute, distribution, power etc. to be public domain, and that small companies would plug in to them?</p> |
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| 101 | <section class="replies"> |
| 102 | <h3>11 replies</h3> |
| 103 | <article class="reply"> |
| 104 | <header> |
| 105 | <strong>Jonathan Markwell</strong> |
| 106 | <small>March 25, 2026, 11:50am</small> |
| 107 | </header> |
| 108 | <main> |
| 109 | Similarly I’d rather 1,000 companies make it to £1 million revenue than one gets to £1 billion. |
| 110 | </main> |
| 111 | </article> |
| 112 | <article class="reply"> |
| 113 | <header> |
| 114 | <strong>jamie</strong> |
| 115 | <small>March 25, 2026, 1:04pm</small> |
| 116 | </header> |
| 117 | <main> |
| 118 | I think it’s logical: less risk of major societal effects due to layoffs, concentration of wealth & power, dependency, and more functional competition in markets. |
| 119 | |
| 120 | I also think smaller companies are most efficient. |
| 121 | |
| 122 | Downside is that some problems require a scale I don’t enjoy |
| 123 | </main> |
| 124 | </article> |
| 125 | <article class="reply"> |
| 126 | <header> |
| 127 | <strong>Paul Campbell</strong> |
| 128 | <small>March 25, 2026, 1:05pm</small> |
| 129 | </header> |
| 130 | <main> |
| 131 | Right! |
| 132 | </main> |
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| 134 | <article class="reply"> |
| 135 | <header> |
| 136 | <strong>Paul Campbell</strong> |
| 137 | <small>March 25, 2026, 1:07pm</small> |
| 138 | </header> |
| 139 | <main> |
| 140 | I think my suggestion is that beyond a certain scale, then things should become utilities. |
| 141 | |
| 142 | As far as I can tell, privatisation of utilities is completely stupid and rather than driving prices, it makes life more complicated and frustrating. |
| 143 | </main> |
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| 145 | <article class="reply"> |
| 146 | <header> |
| 147 | <strong>Paul Campbell</strong> |
| 148 | <small>March 25, 2026, 1:16pm</small> |
| 149 | </header> |
| 150 | <main> |
| 151 | Also: "some problems require a scale" I feel is a spectrum. Some companies have applied scale where maybe scale isn't necessary. A good example is email: instead of innovating ways to make keep it distributed, big companies innovated ways to silo at massive scale. |
| 152 | </main> |
| 153 | </article> |
| 154 | <article class="reply"> |
| 155 | <header> |
| 156 | <strong>jamie</strong> |
| 157 | <small>March 25, 2026, 1:36pm</small> |
| 158 | </header> |
| 159 | <main> |
| 160 | Absolutely. The examples in my head were things like car manufacturing, electricity generation & distribution, shipping, etc. Also banking, insurance etc. Basically anything with large capital requirements. |
| 161 | </main> |
| 162 | </article> |
| 163 | <article class="reply"> |
| 164 | <header> |
| 165 | <strong>jamie</strong> |
| 166 | <small>March 25, 2026, 1:36pm</small> |
| 167 | </header> |
| 168 | <main> |
| 169 | It makes me wildly uncomfortable though to think they might be better as utilities given the state of large government projects/depts. |
| 170 | |
| 171 | Some things should rise to the level of a strategic national utilities (I’d put broadband and electricity back in that bucket) but don’t want an Irish Car Company! |
| 172 | </main> |
| 173 | </article> |
| 174 | <article class="reply"> |
| 175 | <header> |
| 176 | <strong>jamie</strong> |
| 177 | <small>March 25, 2026, 1:36pm</small> |
| 178 | </header> |
| 179 | <main> |
| 180 | In tech specifically, I think AI is a strategic good which should not be centralised in a corporate entity especially as I think it unlocks the dismantling of Big Tech / concentration of tech workers in larger tech companies |
| 181 | </main> |
| 182 | </article> |
| 183 | <article class="reply"> |
| 184 | <header> |
| 185 | <strong>Paul Campbell</strong> |
| 186 | <small>March 25, 2026, 2:04pm</small> |
| 187 | </header> |
| 188 | <main> |
| 189 | Yeah, real-estate too. They all feel like things that could work as cooperatives given enough will. |
| 190 | |
| 191 | I wasn't able to quickly swap the battery of my car recently because BMW use some proprietary shit in the hood design. Fuck that! And that's how _all_ cars are going because they've been let away. |
| 192 | </main> |
| 193 | </article> |
| 194 | <article class="reply"> |
| 195 | <header> |
| 196 | <strong>Paul Campbell</strong> |
| 197 | <small>March 25, 2026, 2:06pm</small> |
| 198 | </header> |
| 199 | <main> |
| 200 | But what if all the components were available to local retailers, and e.g. QA was a national utility. I'm totally dream-lining here, but also I feel like most people should have bikes or quads instead of cars and infrastructure should shift to accommodate that. |
| 201 | </main> |
| 202 | </article> |
| 203 | <article class="reply"> |
| 204 | <header> |
| 205 | <strong>Paul Campbell</strong> |
| 206 | <small>March 25, 2026, 2:08pm</small> |
| 207 | </header> |
| 208 | <main> |
| 209 | There are so many layers of shittiness propping up the AI boom, that _could_ have been strategically implemented as public good: |
| 210 | - carbon neutral datacentres |
| 211 | - co-ordinated training in the public domain |
| 212 | - listening to critics! |
| 213 | - emphasis on enabling small teams rather than taking jobs |
| 214 | </main> |
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amadan