Comment by andy99
1 day ago
There’s probably some double fallacy here, like “x is valuable in this specific situation so it must be valuable in all situations” - I think that’s actually a named fallacy but anyway.
I’m sure it’s similarly true for travel agents, real estate agents, probably lawyers, etc. Just because there are circumstances when someone values them doesn’t automatically justify them everywhere or refute that many of them basically don’t do anything.
The point of the fallacy is that you don't know what value they bring or when they bring it.
Real estate agents are a good example. They might be the only people involved aware of the processes everyone's engaged in and moving things forward. Having helped build tools for a local shop I can tell you that their checklists and flowcharts can't and won't be built with AI because hoarding and sharing information has always been part of their competitive advantage.
A corollary might be that the value of human involvement is unknowable because human beings aren't rational. The Doorman is a buffer against chaos.
The total failure of PurpleBricks attempt to disrupt estate agents in the UK is a good example of this. Turns out people had no idea of the shit-shovelling, chivvying and smoothing-over agents do to help sales actually close.
Were those the guys trying to remove roadblocks set up specifically for people who’d like to encourage sprawl?