Elastic-Demand Career Bet
Invest in domains where making people 10x more productive increases demand rather than reducing it
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 85%
Foody's decision rule for what to study or build a career in during AI. The question is not whether AI can do your task but whether the domain has elastic demand: if everyone becomes 10x more productive, does the world want 10x more of the output, or is demand roughly fixed? Software is the most elastic — 100x more features and speed are wanted. Accounting is comparatively inelastic — the world needs only so much of it. Bet on elastic domains.
Origin
Brendan Foody, CEO of Mercor, answering what skills and jobs will last; he references Marc Andreessen's point that software is the most elastic industry.
Core principles
- 01Elastic demand = how much latent capacity for more output a domain has
- 02In elastic domains, 10x productivity increases demand; in inelastic ones it reduces headcount
- 03Software is the most elastic industry — near-unlimited demand for more features and speed
- 04Inelastic domains (e.g. accounting) need only so much output regardless of productivity
- 05Lean into abundance ('how do we do so much more'), not defense against displacement
How to run it
- 1
Ask the elasticity question of a domain
For any field, ask: if everyone here became 10x more productive, would the world want 10x more output, or is demand roughly capped?
Pro tip Test it concretely — 'do we want 100x more software features?' (yes) vs '100x more accounting?' (no).
- 2
Favor elastic domains
Direct study and career investment toward high-elasticity fields — software engineering, product management, large parts of operations and consulting.
Pro tip Product managers who can now do far more are especially well positioned as software output multiplies.
Watch out Don't confuse 'elastic' with 'generalist' — elasticity is about the domain's demand capacity, not breadth of skills.
- 3
Layer in AI leverage as the meta-skill
Within any chosen domain, the durable skill is leveraging AI to do far more of your day-to-day workflow.
In the wild
Foody contrasts the two: the world could ship 100x more software features and move 100x faster with seemingly unlimited demand, whereas it realistically needs only so much accounting even with big productivity gains.
→ A clear rule to prefer software-like elastic domains for career and study bets.
Foody notes large parts of consulting and operations are variable-cost value chains — imagine 10x the research and analysis capacity those consultants could produce.
→ Consulting/operations flagged as substantially elastic domains worth investing in.
Common mistakes
Optimizing to beat AI at a task
The question isn't whether AI can do the task but whether the domain's demand grows with productivity.
Fighting displacement instead of leaning into abundance
People and companies that resist ('how do we stop displacement') lose to those asking 'how do we do 10-100x more.'
Is it for you?
Best for
Students and early-career professionals deciding what to study or specialize in under AI
Not ideal for
Someone with deep sunk expertise in an inelastic domain where switching cost outweighs the demand ceiling
From the transcript
“I would focus on those domains where if we make everyone 10 times more productive, that'll increase demand, not reduce it.”
“I more mean how much capacity for demand there is in that industry”
“software is the most elastic industry of all where when we increase productivity, there's so much more that will be built”
From the episode
Why experts writing AI evals is creating the fastest-growing companies in history
Brendan Foody (CEO of Mercor)