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Creators of Tailwind laid off 75% of their engineering team

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Re: Creators of Tailwind laid off 75% of their engineering team

#211

Post by ZeroConcerns »

freedomben wrote: post #71
ZeroConcerns wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, my initial reaction that "Tailwind Plus" only offers apparent value for React users is... entirely valid?

Only if you ignore this part of my comment: > 95% of the value I get is the components and things If you want (and only want) a pre-built site that just needs populated with content and maybe minor tweaks to things, then yeah it's React world. However I've rarely found that any template site (Tailwind or otherwise) is close enough to where it doesn't need medium to major surgery to meet my needs, at which point it's…

> If you want (and only want) a pre-built site

No, I want to be able to @import "tailwindcss" without feeling guilty.

> I've rarely found that any template site

Well, meet https://basecoatui.com -- and there's more where that came from.

So, ehhm, no, I'm not ignoring the salient part of your comment: you are ignoring the entire point of my post, which is that if Tailwind had a non-React monetization strategy, things maybe, possibly, might have worked out better.

Re: Creators of Tailwind laid off 75% of their engineering team

#212

Post by bongodongobob »

krainboltgreene wrote: post #161
elictronic wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should learn to vote for UBI?

Everyone suggests UBI like this sort of thing is a massive hurricane and we just gotta take it on the chin. Nah man, this stuff isn't happening anywhere else. We can simply say "No, you don't get to ruin the economy for your personal profit."

[dead]

Re: Creators of Tailwind laid off 75% of their engineering team

#213

Post by pmdr »

srameshc wrote: post #10

> But the reality is that 75% of the people on our engineering team lost their jobs here yesterday because of the brutal impact AI has had on our business. Adam is simply trying to navigate this new reality, and he's being honest, so there's no need to criticize him.

If there's anything AI coding is good at, it's writing react components and tailwind css.

Re: Creators of Tailwind laid off 75% of their engineering team

#214

Post by albroland »

tannhaeuser wrote: post #205

> But the reality is that 75% of the people on our engineering team lost their jobs here yesterday because of the brutal impact AI has had on our business. Not a Tailwind user but I really appreciate the honesty. Is the brutal impact of AI as a cause established though? It appears creation of new web sites is down, but that doesn't mean the business has gone to LLMs like suggested; it could as well mean that there ar…

I believe a lot of this expectation is that as people replace Google searches with LLMs, or even enriched LLM results pushed at the top of Google results, far less click through to the actual sources happens.

This is happening across a lot of web verticals that previously relied on excellent SEO ranking and click through performance to drive ad revenue/conversions/sales. I have direct knowledge of some fairly catastrophic metrics coming out of knowledge base businesses; it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest that something like Tailwind is suffering a similar fate.

Re: Creators of Tailwind laid off 75% of their engineering team

#215

Post by robinhood »

It was probably inevitable. Building a commercial offering (mostly templates) around code which could be considered as "commodity" is extremely hard to do. I'm glad Adam and his team have had a lot of success already with this, but for sure it was not sustainable on the long run. If you are reading this, thanks Adam for having created Tailwind. It's not for everyone, but it's for some people, and that's good enough for me. We need options, and you were a solid one of them.

Re: Creators of Tailwind laid off 75% of their engineering team

#216

Post by ZephyrBlu »

bakies wrote: post #188
magician2229 wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I listened to his podcast this morning where he mentions 75% of their four person engineering team was laid off (only the founders and one engineer remain) https://adams-morning-walk.transistor.fm/episodes/we-had-six...

75% is a lot more dramatic than 3 people geez

He said he wanted to state it like that because he thought just saying "3 people" undersold the impact.

Re: Creators of Tailwind laid off 75% of their engineering team

#217

Post by j16sdiz »

elictronic wrote: post #139
blitzar wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is "progress" when tech bros displace traditional workers, but it is "heartbreaking" when a tech bro gets displaced by other tech bros. Whats the 2026 version of "you should learn to code" ?

You should learn to vote for UBI?

I can't imagine how it could work internationally, when people can literally migrate between countries and countries ain't sharing resources for free

Re: Creators of Tailwind laid off 75% of their engineering team

#218

Post by bobthepanda »

sosodev wrote: post #67
K0nserv wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having worked on a design system previously I think most people, especially non-frontend developers, discount how hard something like that is to build. LLMs will build stuff that looks plausible but falls short in a bunch of ways (particularly accessibility). This is for the same reason that people generate div-soup, it looks correct on the surface. EDIT: I suppose what I'm saying is that "The paid products Adam ment…

I think you're overestimating how much people care about quality.

Accessibility is an interesting space for quality because under the ADA you can be sued for it and be exposed to huge liability.

Re: Creators of Tailwind laid off 75% of their engineering team

#219

Post by spaceman_2020 »

blitzar wrote: post #106
random_duck wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Also I could not imagine being in his shoes, it must be heartbreaking seeing all his work burn like this.

It is "progress" when tech bros displace traditional workers, but it is "heartbreaking" when a tech bro gets displaced by other tech bros. Whats the 2026 version of "you should learn to code" ?

Well, I never read the artcicle because paywall, but there is a WSJ headline today about a $160k mechanic job at Ford that can't be fulfilled because no labor
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