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← People and their mental models

Alex Imas's mental models

2 claims Alex Imas made fit 2 mental models. Most often: Signalling, Value moves to what stays scarce. Everything they said here.

Models we see in what they say

Our reading: their claim applies the idea without naming it. The claim is theirs; filing it here is ours.

Signalling

Much of what people do is a message about themselves, and a signal is believed only when it costs something to send.

Used by 15 others

Some firms are laying people off mainly so as not to look behind on AI, in a cascade of keeping up with the Joneses.

  1. Alex Imas Behavioural economist at Chicago Booth let's say we get into a narrative where like if you're a firm and you're not laying people off, then you're seen as like not adapting AI enough. So like then you'll get you're going to just get a cascade effect of firms like just needing to keep up with the Joneses in terms of like starting to lay people off. The better AI gets, the smaller its share of the economy might get – Alex Imas and Phil Trammellyoutube.com · 4 Jun 2026 · 0:31:40 into the videoAll korrents from this video
    Their wordslet's say we get into a narrative where like if you're a firm and you're not laying people off, then you're seen as like not adapting AI enough. So like then you'll get you're going to just get a cascade effect of firms like just needing to keep up with the Joneses in terms of like starting to lay people off.

    Where this was said

    Watch from 0:31:40 plays here

    ↗The better AI gets, the smaller its share of the economy might get – Alex Imas and Phil Trammellyoutube.com

    4 Jun 2026 · video · 1h 16m · spoken · machine transcript

Value moves to what stays scarce

When something becomes cheap and plentiful, the value moves to whatever is still rare next to it.

Used by 59 others

What stays scarce when almost everything is automated is the relational sector: goods and services whose value depends on a human having been in the loop.

  1. Alex Imas Behavioural economist at Chicago Booth Something like the relational sector, which is what I defined as, um, you know, basically services and goods where the fact that the human was in the loop was actually part of the value of that product. The better AI gets, the smaller its share of the economy might get – Alex Imas and Phil Trammellyoutube.com · 4 Jun 2026 · 0:00:44 into the videoAll korrents from this video
    Their wordsSomething like the relational sector, which is what I defined as, um, you know, basically services and goods where the fact that the human was in the loop was actually part of the value of that product.

    Where this was said

    Watch from 0:00:44 plays here

    ↗The better AI gets, the smaller its share of the economy might get – Alex Imas and Phil Trammellyoutube.com

    4 Jun 2026 · video · 1h 16m · spoken · machine transcript