Alejandro Arce — home Thinking in Public
No. 61 · Work

We're in the middle of a second renaissance

Line illustration: a broken key lying in the foreground while a small stack of building blocks rises into a sunrise behind it.

Proof of work replaces the resume. An audience replaces the employer. Taste replaces credentials.

It's the trade happening right now, one hire and one launch at a time.

The old signals

What you claimed

  • The resume
  • The employer
  • The credential
The new signals

What you can show

  • The proof of work
  • The audience
  • The taste

Same three decisions — different evidence

A resume is a claim. Proof of work is a receipt: the thing you built is right there to click on. An employer used to be the stamp of legitimacy; now the audience is the stamp, and it's harder to fake because it can leave.

A credential proved you sat through something. Taste proves you can tell the difference between good and forgettable, and the tastemakers are exactly who gets followed once anyone can make anything.

Managing agents is the same shift wearing different clothes: the scoreboard moved from headcount to workflows shipped. Same renaissance, different room.

Build the proof. Skip the paperwork.

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