Like - Premium Mediocre

One of my favorite ideas of the last five years came from an essay by a writer named Venkat Rao, who (as far as I can tell) occupies some weird hybrid position between being a consult/cultural theorist/technologist/managerial analyst, and has a wide and weird intellectual scope. He’s an interesting guy who has interesting things to say, and not in the dull way that boring things are “interesting.” His essay on The Office and the theory of management it espouses is a masterclass. His writing can be a bit heady, but when it all works out his thinking is lucid and evocative. One of his best concepts is the idea/description of a class of goods that can be said to be “premium mediocre.” Here are some examples from the post: “Premium mediocre is Starbucks’ Italian names for drink sizes… Premium mediocre is “truffle” oil on anything (no actual truffles are harmed in the making of “truffle” oil)… Anything branded as “signature” is premium mediocre of course.” It goes on and on from there. On its face, the concept might feel snooty. But if it’s explored in a non-judgmental way, it reflects the mediocre state of things in the year 2024. It’s commonly said that in the 1950s we were all promised flying cars in the near future. I’m sure that was true, but I doubt how many people actually believed it. To that same effect, I’m not sure that anyone believes that Kroger Select Brand is truly a select brand. But maybe that doesn’t matter because what kind of private label would announce itself to begin with?