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Essays

A Cobb–Douglas Production Function for Academia in the Age of AI

A back-of-envelope thought experiment: model academic output as \(Q = E \cdot G^{\alpha_G} \cdot L^{\alpha_L}\) — elite connections, good ideas, labor effort — and ask what happens when AI drives the cost of \(L\) to zero. The short answer: returns to \(G\) and \(E\) explode, the value of grinding collapses, and the structure of academic markets shifts in ways that look a lot like winner-take-all.