Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Productivity leaps are possible and happening. I am sorry to write that fortunes can be made while employing just a few persons.

I recently learned of a game called Among Us from a company called InnerSloth. In November of 2020, there were 500 million people playing the game.

InnerSloth has four employees.

It was a long, slow climb to this popularity, but the game became an improbable hit. The four persons had savings and lived very cheaply for a few years. There was no guarantee of success. None. It just worked.

Given programming toolkits and cloud computing and imagination and long hours, four persons can make software that is used by half-a-billion. That is not a gain in productivity—it is a leap from one side of the Grand Canyon to the other.

Note to government agencies the world over: get with it.

Jobs? Four of them. Of course there were persons employed to create the tools and the clouds and the smartphones on which the game is played. Still, four jobs.

The new, new economies are like this. When things work, when games become hits, there is a lot of money concentrated in the hands of a few. I wish those at InnerSloth all the best. I hope they make lots of money. I hope they show others that productivity leaps are possible. I also hope they find ways to hire other persons.