Fire the CEO, Introducing the AxO's • Hacker News Board

Re: Fire the CEO, Introducing the AxO's

#41

Post by louwrentius » Tue, Mar 03, 2026, 10:49 PM UTC

jimbokun wrote: post #31

louwrentius wrote: post #2

I agree, fire the CEO. But I have a slightly different take that doesn't involve AI. What if we indeed get rid of the entire C-suite? Even better still: why are companies and orgs hierarchical? Why is there always a - for lack of a better word - dictator in charge? AI CEO is still an AI dictator. We are permitted to vote, but democracy in everyday life, that's a bridge too far, chaos, riots in the streets, cats and d…

In the US democracy we still have a strong central executive with a lot of decision making power. Parliamentary systems do not always have a President per se, but generally have a similar role of an individual who can quickly make decisions in emergencies and crises. So in practice I’m not sure democracies are all that different in practice.

I think current democracies could also shed the notion that there must be an elected “dictator”, making decisions in crises should also be made with cooperation, especially then.

Re: Fire the CEO, Introducing the AxO's

#42

Post by deepsun » Tue, Mar 03, 2026, 11:03 PM UTC

jimbokun wrote: post #24

deepsun wrote: post #21

A big part of my job is responsibility. When AI can go to jail instead of me, I would be happy to let it take my job :)

Isn’t the main point of having a corporation as a legal entity to replace personal liability with corporate liability?

Only some liabilities. Mainly debt -- so people would not be afraid to start businesses and borrow money. But if, say, an accountant produces an incorrect report -- they may personally go to jail. Or an HR or information security officer can be accused of negligence.

Sometimes it even works the other way, a person (usually Officer) can be personally responsible for company actions, even when they didn't commit it themselves. Logic is they should've known or implemented processes in a way to prevent it in the first place. People often don't realize how much responsibility officers carry for the actions of their employees they have little control over.

Also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piercing_the_corporate_veil

Re: Fire the CEO, Introducing the AxO's

#43

Post by deepsun » Tue, Mar 03, 2026, 11:12 PM UTC

redleggedfrog wrote: post #28

deepsun wrote: post #21

A big part of my job is responsibility. When AI can go to jail instead of me, I would be happy to let it take my job :)

LOL! The first thing that came to my head was, "I've never had a CEO that shouldn't be in jail. Well, except for the current one. He seems okay. The others committed fraud and deceit at a level that would surely have them on the wrong side of the law, if not in prison. Kind of stems from every CEO except this latest one has been a. Some sort of mental, and b. some sort of sociopath. We can see this with our big name…

Yea, seen that too. But also seen good CEOs. Go for a smaller company, smaller companies are much more diverse (in both good and bad ways), and it's not hard to find a team with an awesome top management who does not want to screw anyone over.

Re: Fire the CEO, Introducing the AxO's

#44

Post by fragmede » Tue, Mar 03, 2026, 11:13 PM UTC

root_axis wrote: post #35

RobRivera wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh - sometimes people get hired in bulk to show growth and then get assigned valueless work, or work not necessarily as valuable. Both statements can be true.

> sometimes people get hired in bulk to show growth Um no, this doesn't happen. Nobody is paying useless people just to "show growth".

Of the 8.1 billion humans alive, 3 billion of them have jobs (approximately). You are speaking for every single last one of them, that they weren't hired for some office political reason and every single last one of them is useful at their job? I haven't spoken to all of them, but I find that hard to believe.

Re: Fire the CEO, Introducing the AxO's

#45

Post by root_axis » Tue, Mar 03, 2026, 11:23 PM UTC

fragmede wrote: post #44

root_axis wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> sometimes people get hired in bulk to show growth Um no, this doesn't happen. Nobody is paying useless people just to "show growth".

Of the 8.1 billion humans alive, 3 billion of them have jobs (approximately). You are speaking for every single last one of them, that they weren't hired for some office political reason and every single last one of them is useful at their job? I haven't spoken to all of them, but I find that hard to believe.

The fact that you have to invoke "every single last one" of 8 billion people to demonstrate the possibility of this happening is pretty telling.

Re: Fire the CEO, Introducing the AxO's

#46

Post by root_axis » Tue, Mar 03, 2026, 11:24 PM UTC

RobRivera wrote: post #40

root_axis wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> sometimes people get hired in bulk to show growth Um no, this doesn't happen. Nobody is paying useless people just to "show growth".

Oh you know this for an irrefutable fact, now?

Yes. It's the kind of thing stated by people who have never run a business.

Re: Fire the CEO, Introducing the AxO's

#47

Post by boringops-dan » Tue, Mar 03, 2026, 11:55 PM UTC

josefritzishere wrote: post #5

I'm not seeing a scenario where a CEO decides to replace themself. But if this is trolling, I fully support that.

I enjoy doing actual tech thought-experiment like this, so not a troll.

Everyone just accepts that software engineers are going to be pandhandling in the street for free API tokens, but what if the prevalent attitude was to start from the top down?

Re: Fire the CEO, Introducing the AxO's

#48

Post by boringops-dan » Tue, Mar 03, 2026, 11:59 PM UTC

louwrentius wrote: post #2

I agree, fire the CEO. But I have a slightly different take that doesn't involve AI. What if we indeed get rid of the entire C-suite? Even better still: why are companies and orgs hierarchical? Why is there always a - for lack of a better word - dictator in charge? AI CEO is still an AI dictator. We are permitted to vote, but democracy in everyday life, that's a bridge too far, chaos, riots in the streets, cats and d…

There's really quite a lack of innovation in corporate structures.

I (still) believe that we're going to see a rejection of this MBA-short-term-fuck-the-long-term thinking, and next-gen companies will form treat their employees like the adults they are.

That employee goodwill and motivation will make them outpeform the current system. Thnk of the opposite of work-to-rule or 'quiet quitting': An actual motivated workforce.

Re: Fire the CEO, Introducing the AxO's

#49

Post by boringops-dan » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 12:03 AM UTC

ElevenLathe wrote: post #4

Workers ultimately have a job because they are useful to management, and management have a job because they are useful to ownership. Top management has insane levels of compensation as a strategy by ownership to alight management's interests with their own, by turning them into owners. If there is going to be a management layer at all, for example the proposed "A-suite", then their compensation will balloon for exact…

One aspect the AxO would address, is the idea that the CEO is some sort of all-knowing, all-seeing, smartest-guy-in-the-room type that is so special and unique, they deserve it all and more.

It sorta breaks the CEO job into component parts which theoretically would reduce the executive compensations as the the replacement system is more interchangable.

Re: Fire the CEO, Introducing the AxO's

#50

Post by boringops-dan » Wed, Mar 04, 2026, 12:06 AM UTC

drykiss wrote: post #36

More generally about companies and how they’re organized - Why do we have “benevolent dictator” CxOs and trickle-down ownership and decision making powers? But bottom-up responsibility for faults and mistakes? I feel like it’s high time to have more democratic systems at our workspaces as well. More of a co-op model of working than a pyramid. Doesn’t make sense at all, for example, that the core engineers who built t…

The hard truth is that the technical solution really is a piece of the overall puzzle to what makes success, and its easy for technical people to overvalue it. I think we're seeing a bit of it in the current AI question of "If vibecoding is so damn good, where are all the vibe coding SaaS's?" The answer is that the code wasn't the entire answer, its the business and distribution around it as well.