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Today I've made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%

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Re: Today I've made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%

#521

Post by oytis »

skeptic_ai wrote: post #486
MeetingsBrowser wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a software engineer who also hires other software engineers, I’m curious about the disconnect in our experiences. I do systems programming. Before AI feature development roughly went like, design, implement, test, review with some back edges and a lot of time spent in test and review. AI has made the implementation part much faster, at the cost of even more time spent testing and reviewing, though still an improve…

I never touched kubernetes and in 1 week I have a few nodes running and i understand a lot of it. Not perfect but not bad.

I have recently learned Kubernetes without AI and one week is more than enough to understand most of it.

Re: Today I've made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%

#522

Post by kelnos »

ryandrake wrote: post #282
tkzed49 wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're offering to subsidize the cost that the individual would normally pay for COBRA coverage. They're only required to offer the coverage, but not to pay for it. However, I don't think this is that unusual in SV layoff packages.

If so, that's really generous, given the cost of having to pay for COBRA. Either way, I'd still be shitting my pants. 16 weeks is not a lot of time to find another job in today's environment. I know devs who have been out of work for years and had to resort to stocking shelves at Home Depot to tread water.

I would sincerely hope that anyone making tech money has some savings put away and isn't living paycheck-to-paycheck.

Re: Today I've made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%

#524

Post by [deleted] »

vl wrote: post #503
arthurjj wrote: post #164

> employees will receive a minimum of 16 weeks base pay (plus 2 weeks per year worked), their next equity vest, and 6 months of COBRA As someone who lived through multiple rounds of layoffs at big tech companies this seemed quite generous.

This is surprising about COBRA - I thought it’s always 18 months. Moreover it doesn’t make much sense to limit cobra - you are paying full price out of pocket anyway.

[deleted]

Re: Today I've made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%

#525

Post by kuboble »

glaslong wrote: post #507
strken wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference between the "thanks" email and the "loser" email is that the second one is intentionally disrespectful. I'm not convinced a polite but AI-written email hits the same note. At the very least it's unintentionally disrespectful, which isn't a direct challenge. Your boss doesn't care enough to write an email by hand, but also doesn't care enough to burn bridges and insult you.

So it isn't disrespectful, and neither is it respectful. A perfect nothing, not a thought or care involved. Like a 1-click eCard mailer.

Genuine question. Let's say you are bad with words.

If you ask AI to generate hundred different paragraphs and choose the one which best conveys what you actually feel and want to communicate.

Is it is still a perfect nothing?

Re: Today I've made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%

#526

Post by beachy »

keithnz wrote: post #315
reverend_gonzo wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would disagree. I am among the oldest on our team and also the most in tune with AI. I see AI-native as those who have embraced it, and are learning to leverage it appropriately.

Same, I've been coding for 40+ years, and other people I know of similar length of time also seem real quick to adopt AI. I'm constantly having to show the young devs how to get the most out of their AI agents and also adapting my workflows regularly as things changes. Weirdly its some of the youngest who are most resistant, I think because they are learning coding skills, and just have got the hang of coding such th…

I've been around the block and I feel the same.

The best complement to AI will be a human who is part architect (they know not to build the new system on lovable, and they understand the company's digital assets) and part business analyst (can communicate effectively and tease out and distill requirements from customer team).

That indicates someone who has top notch communication skills and also quite a bit of experience i.e older.

Re: Today I've made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%

#527

Post by satvikpendem »

MeetingsBrowser wrote: post #395
adamtaylor_13 wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am an engineer. I hire other engineers. I run a company that ships usable software for small businesses. We do this every day. I'm sorry to say, we are indeed shipping in days what used to take weeks.

As a software engineer who also hires other software engineers, I’m curious about the disconnect in our experiences. I do systems programming. Before AI feature development roughly went like, design, implement, test, review with some back edges and a lot of time spent in test and review. AI has made the implementation part much faster, at the cost of even more time spent testing and reviewing, though still an improve…

> I do systems programming.

I'll stop you right there. AI is not good at systems programming, it's good at CRUD web development, which is where most people are seeing the gains.

Re: Today I've made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%

#528

Post by blitzar »

bombcar wrote: post #159
prewett wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> this is about as good of a layoff email as he could have sent. Except for that tone-deaf part at the end, where right after he talks to the people who "will be leaving" (that is, the people getting kicked out), he says that Coinbase will be stronger and healthier for this. Which makes it hard not to draw the conclusion that the people "leaving" are part of the unhealth. The CEO probably does not even think that, an…

It would be amusing but counterproductive to have a layoff email talk about how they’re firing their best and smartest employees.

If you are really doing a reorg / restructure / reimagination you would likely be losing some good and some bad, some new employees and some people who have been there since day 0 (and everything in between). I think it would be productive to acknowledge that.

But the reality is it is a standard MBA driven "bottom x%" cull dressed up with some 4d chess strategy.

Re: Today I've made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%

#529

Post by jedberg »

sobellian wrote: post #419
pron wrote: post #310

> Over the past year, I’ve watched engineers use AI to ship in days what used to take a team weeks. No, you didn't. You watched engineers use AI to ship in days something that looks like what used to take a team weeks. After enough rounds of feature evolution, you'll realise that what they actually shipped isn't at all the same. Anthropic's C compiler, which also seemed like a good start that would have taken people…

AI definitely leads to some productivity gain but the claims of 10x, 100x, 1000+x are (for now) irrational exuberance. Churning out prototype software has always been quick, and now it's blazing . But these LLMs are like Happy Gilmore. They get to the green in one shot then they orbit the hole with an extremely dubious short game. The virtue is in their parallelizability but you still need to review their work, lest…

> But these LLMs are like Happy Gilmore. They get to the green in one shot then they orbit the hole with an extremely dubious short game.

Except that he got good at his short game by the end. LLMs will get there sooner than we think.

Re: Today I've made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%

#530

Post by muzani »

kelnos wrote: post #515

> Leaders will own much more, with as many as 15+ direct reports. [...] Every leader at Coinbase must also be a strong and active individual contributor. Managers should be like player-coaches, getting their hands dirty alongside their teams. Oof. So not only are they giving their remaining managers more reports, but those managers will be expected to do lots of other, non-management work. Sure, nothing can go wrong…

This jumped out at me right away too. What happened to the days when a dedicated manager would manage 8 reports? What now? AI is going to double the communication bandwidth with these reports and further double the free time they have?

I do think the most efficient form of team is a "cell" of three people. One is a little unstable.

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