I just read a tremendous story in Jan 19th issue of The New Yorker, all about the marketing of movies. It's full of the modern equivalents of those sharp, gung-ho, amoral, marketing/advertising people you get in Mad Men. Or agents living up to their image. But I thought this quote from an agent was particularly interesting.
Because in a lot of bits of a lot of businesses all that's changed in the last 5 (or 50) years is that "now there's a girl in a sweater who does the Internet." And speaking as someone who's often that girl it's useful to remember how things look from the other side of the table. The reality might be different. We might be about to flatten these stupid businesses with the web, but maybe not. And for a lot of people, a lot of the time, not much has changed, and doesn't show much sign of doing so.