[neya]

> today we're making one of the hardest decisions in the history of our company:

> i had two options: cut gradually over months or years as this shift plays out, or be honest about where we are and act on it now. i chose the latter.

> i’m sorry to put you through this.

POV: Dude who has effortlessly fired people before deflects blame for over-hiring in the first place.

I swear people should start blacklisting CEOs and refuse to work under them if they're part of the blacklist.

This is just a piss poor excuse for bad management and short-sighted vision and no accountability.

[keeda]

> I swear people should start blacklisting CEOs and refuse to work under them if they're part of the blacklist.

Look at the job market. They know they can get away with it and so they don't care.

My current theory is that this is partly why executives are desperate to get AI to work, and why investors are ploughing billions into AI. They know they've burnt too many bridges, and they need AI to work so they never have to turn to us again. Otherwise the pendulum will swing even farther in the opposite direction, putting even more bargaining power in the hands of employees than the post-COVID job market.

Unfortunately, AI does seem to be working very well, and I don't see great outcomes for us on the current trajectory. I expect turmoil before a new social contract is established.

[gopher_space]

> Unfortunately, AI does seem to be working very well, and I don't see great outcomes for us on the current trajectory.

The people decreasing headcount are already behind the curve. They're thinking about how many people they need to run things instead of how many people they need to reinvent an industry.

[rezonant]

It seems AI code is producing technical debt at an alarming speed. What many people think of as "AIs don't need code to be pretty" is misunderstanding the purpose of refactoring, code reuse, and architectural patterns that AIs appear to skip or misunderstand with regularity. A reckoning will come when the tech debt needs to be paid and the AIs are going to be unable to pay it, the same way it happens when humans produce technical debt at a high rate and do not address it in a timely manner.

[neya]

> why investors are ploughing billions into AI. They know they've burnt too many bridges,

This is a very interesting perspective, I haven't thought of it like that.

[deadbabe]

Your theory is wrong.

Someone will inevitably have to prompt AIs, CEOs and other executives are NOT going to be doing it themselves. The people driving those AI will have greater leverage as less and less people choose a career in tech.

Also, when an AI fucks up in a way only a human can fix, the human must be available.

What I see more likely is a future where software engineers do even less work but frustratingly you still need them around to fix problems whenever they come up. Kind of like firefighters.

[princevegeta89]

>>I had two options: cut gradually over months or years as this shift plays out, or be honest about where we are and act on it now. I chose the latter.

Jesus.. why do CEOs and other executive members end up writing such useless language in their posts....! Essentially, both these points are the same if you look at the employees. However, the writing has to be bloated in such a way that there is something else involved here, which there is not. This is just drama.

Also, these decisions are not hard, regardless of whatever the hell has been claimed. They are actually easy decisions and choosing not to do layoffs is actually the hard decision. There is no need to sugarcoat so much.

[SanjayMehta]

> such useless language in their posts

"Your call is very important to us."

"We take security very seriously."

PR speak + copy/paste and now LLMs.

[operatingthetan]

It's for the people who still work there.

[_heimdall]

> I swear people should start blacklisting CEOs

Do most people not already do this? I know there's a list of CEOs I would never go near.

[rubyfan]

Share

[anitil]

To be honest I prefer this type of communication over the I-can't-believe-it's-not-layoffs that my previous employer was doing. At least it's honest that it is a decision they've made.

[Skidaddle]

I remember when Zuck said cut once, cut deep

[ojbyrne]

It’s not clear to me whether you’re characterizing that as trenchant business advice or cynical bullshit. Meta has had several rounds of layoffs now so it surely can’t be the former.

Also Guy Kawasaki probably isn’t the first to say this, but I’d guess he predates Zuckerberg: https://guykawasaki.com/the_art_of_the_/

[tsunamifury]

… then keep cutting.

[mil22]

Yep, he hasn't changed. F*ck that guy.

[neya]

I mean, sky is blue, water is wet, etc.

[khazhoux]

> i had two options: cut gradually over months or years as this shift plays out, or be honest about where we are and act on it now. i chose the latter.

i love that he casts it as:

a) a drawn-out downsizing that might stretch for years, which is clearly "bad" because no one likes uncertainty.

b) ripping the band-aid decisively, with the nobility of being an "honest" decision. and who doesn't appreciate honesty?

...because of course employees who get laid off, prefer to lose their jobs as soon as possible and know they served an honest ceo.

[pembrook]

The whole thing reads to me like he's not deflecting blame at all, he's explicitly saying he's putting the employees through this.

> just a piss poor excuse for bad management and short-sighted vision

I mean, the guy has built multiple publicly traded companies and scaled them to thousands of employees from the ground up (an exceedingly rare feat), and is admitting he didn't see the AI thing coming. Almost nobody did.

I'm sure you would have done a much better job, though. As an HN commenter, you definitely wouldn't have overhired, because you're endlessly pessimistic and deathly afraid of risk. But you also would have never gotten the company off the ground in the first place because this. What's the last 10,000+ employee org you founded and scaled?

[neya]

> he didn't see the AI thing coming. Almost nobody did.

That's what he wants you to believe. That is just an easy way out for CEOs to blame it all on AI and not take accountability for their over-hiring in the first place.

Literally on their homepage:

"Block builds technology for economic empowerment"

How can you claim to build technology for "economic empowerment" if you couldn't see through the AI coming? The trend started like 4-5 years ago.

[dr_kretyn]

I'm generally anti-corpo and capitalism but I agree with you. The guy could've done better but so far he's on a good trajectory and much much better than most. Doesn't mean that he isn't going to make mistakes nor that this might turn out badly but that's the point of leading - making bets.

It sucks to be fired but if I'm a year time everyone lost a job it'd suck even more.

[akutlay]

> and is admitting he didn't see the AI thing coming

You miss the point that this is not about AI in the first place

[jackblemming]

> What's the last 10,000+ employee org you founded and scaled?

A lot of smart and talented people could do this if given the opportunity. Jack was at the right place at the right time and had enough talent. Same with Elon and others. That’s kind of what happens when you have a population of hundreds of millions, a few get lucky and have enough talent to not screw it up.

It’s best to avoid being delusional and acting like billionaires are 5000 IQ geniuses. They’re regular people too, albeit, yes they are smarter than the average person you pull out of Walmart.

There are also plenty of smart people who simply do not care to run or start businesses.

[y1n0]

How dare someone accept your application for employment and pay you money for services rendered. It's absurd!

[no_wizard]

That’s not even a good argument for whatever it is you’re trying to say.

While you may not like the energy behind OPs statements he’s pretty clear: CEOs and executives in general face almost zero consequences for their decisions that affect hundreds or thousands of people

I’m with OP, thy should face real consequences for stupid decisions

[neya]

When you accept my application, there is an implicit understanding that I will have a job for a foreseeable future. I am making life decisions based on YOU, the CEO - I have to think about commute, renting, school for kids and a lot more. All you need to think about is my pay-check.

And once you fuck up, you still get your nice fat cheque and bonus, but I'm very realistically looking at relocating and/or unemployment for a very long time and possibly homelessness. You will be hailed as a hero by the board for saving them money, I will be painted a villain by everyone in my family...just for believing in you and your empty words. I'm not even mentioning the side effects of health I get as a result (possible anxiety, depression, blood pressure, etc.)

Services rendered is an acceptable excuse for a contractor relationship, not employees. If that's how you view employees, then good luck with your business.