— 01
Material got fatter, not thinner.
AI made producing text essentially free. Data rooms, memos, transcripts, inboxes — all heavier. The judgment work got harder, not easier. More haystack, same needles.
— 02
Partners are stretched across too many jobs.
Quality gate, client relationships, people management, origination — all on the same 60 hours. Every hour of review is an hour not spent winning the next mandate.
— 03
The talent pipeline is cracking.
Juniors will not do 80-hour weeks of grunt. Hybrid work weakens apprenticeship. The drudge that used to train analysts now burns them out first.
— 04
Judgment walks out the door.
Pattern recognition sits with the few who have seen enough cycles. When they leave, the rubric leaves. It lives in heads, not in systems.
— 05
The buried-risk fear never leaves.
In a 4,000-page data room under a two-week clock, something material is always nearly missed. The quiet demand is not "summarise faster" — it is "guarantee coverage."