Cognitive Scaffold

Preparing your thinking workspace

arrow_back_ios_new
MENTAL MODEL · M2190

Disintermediation

Disintermediation
BusinessHigh supportEconomics
Included
account_tree

Version 1.0.0 · Updated 2026-07-30

CORE DEFINITION

Using network technology to cut out middlemen (wholesalers/distributors/brokers) in the supply chain, allowing producers to directly connect with consumers (DTC).

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

psychology

Reduce cognitive load

- Value chain restructuring: If your business is a middleman making money from information asymmetry, you are dying. The only way out is to transform into a 'service provider', offering value-added services beyond simple connection.

anchor

Anchor fast decisions

Technology or institutional changes bypass traditional intermediary links, enabling direct interaction between producers and consumers, reducing transaction costs and restructuring the value chain. The Internet and blockchain are typical enablers, allowing matching and trust to be partially handled by algorithms.

MINIMUM ACTION

In progress 0/4

Practice this model in one real situation:

Check to track your progress (stored locally)
Learning progress0%
account_treeGenealogyexpand_more
menu_bookReferencesexpand_more

Source support: Explicit

  • link
    en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisintermediationZH · Explicit
    verified

RELATED MODELS

Related model

Grey Swan

Refers to events that have a very low probability of occurrence, but if they occur, have a huge impact, and to some extent are foreseeable (not completely unpredictable, i.e., not black swans).

arrow_forwardRelated model

I, Pencil

Leonard Read uses the production network behind a pencil to illustrate how knowledge dispersed across people and industries is combined through specialization and exchange.

arrow_forwardRelated model

Fordism

Fordism describes an economic and social system based on industrialized and standardized mass production and mass consumption. This concept, named after Henry Ford, is widely used in sociology, economics, and management studies, particularly concerning production, working conditions, consumption, and other related phenomena in the 20th century.

arrow_forward