ChatGPT zei:
That's a sharp and thought-provoking take — and one that's resonating more and more.
There is a creeping sense that Western business, especially in its corporate core, is losing the muscle and keeping only the glossy surface. We've offloaded the "doing" — the engineering, the making, the building — and kept the "talking about doing": strategy decks, branding campaigns, financial engineering, legal gymnastics, and endless layers of consultants consulting the consultants.
Outsourcing as a slow erosion
Outsourcing made perfect short-term sense — lower costs, focus on "core competencies" — but long-term, it's eroded the ability to actually build things. The West used to be able to design, make, and iterate under one roof. Now, design is in California, prototyping is in Shenzhen, manufacturing in Vietnam, and customer service in the Philippines. That fragmentation undermines not just capability, but identity.
Imposter syndrome is a fitting metaphor.
Western firms still wear the suit of the industrial powerhouse — stock market valuations, global brands, sleek HQs — but underneath, there's a gnawing anxiety: Do we still matter? Can we still actually do things? That's classic imposter syndrome. The surface looks successful, but inside there's a fear of being found out.
Overpriced services as the echo chamber
Finance, marketing, consulting, and legal work can be incredibly valuable. But when the bulk of an economy revolves around these services, it often becomes a game of managing perception and friction rather than creating real value. There's also a risk of circularity — consultants advising each other, lawyers creating work for other lawyers — a kind of professional services ouroboros.
What's next?
There's a real question about what happens if the West doesn't reverse this — especially in a geopolitical context where "resilience" is making a comeback. Some forward-looking companies are trying to re-integrate capabilities (e.g., reshoring, investing in apprenticeships, deeper tech verticals), but the momentum of finance-driven optimization is strong.
Curious: what sparked this thought for you? Personal experience, frustration, observation?
