whither the vibecession?

I saw this TikTok the other day — which I didn't think to save and now, naturally, can't find again — where this guy showed a screenshot of his TikTok payout for the month, incensed at a potential ban. He said something like: where else am I going to make $11,000 in 2 months?

It struck me as something I hadn't heard yet in the What Should We Do With TikTok? debate. There's been a lot of talk about a vibecession — the word we've started to use to describe the disconnect between how good the economy is on paper and how good people feel about it — but I think that guy's question is an excellent one. Where else can you make $11,000 in 2 months without, like, doing anything extremely illegal?

My pet theory about the vibecession: it's primarily coming from white collar workers who are seeing what's happening to the people around them. And they realize that it could just as easily be them.

To talk around it a bit less: what I mean, really, is the mass layoffs that keep happening across industries over the last year and a half have really broken people's brains. Because it's obvious that those jobs just... aren't coming back. If you're not one of the best and brightest in your field — and let's be honest, very few of us are — you're suddenly competing with those people to land any job you might be remotely qualified for. Anecdotally, I've noticed that every job posting I see — again, in the fields I'm qualified to work in — is immediately flooded with hundreds or thousands of applications. And I think people are noticing the same kind of thing.

I mean, it feels obvious that if you have a job right now you should do your damndest to keep it — because, again, if you're out you might just be shit out of luck. Short newsletter this week! I mean, what else is there to say?

Oh, and yes: please reach out if you'd like me to write / edit / Produce Content / etc. for ya. Or if you've got a cool job.

+

stuff i've been consuming lately

Garbage Day, Ryan Broderick's newsletter (which I had the pleasure of editing this week)

Never Post, Mike Rugnetta's fabulous new podcast