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Layoffs at Block

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Re: Layoffs at Block

#791

Post by Orygin »

alephnerd wrote: post #320
mschuster91 wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And finally, COVID proved to a large number of companies and industries that 100% WFH and Async for white collar roles does work. But wait, if I can hire Joe in Cary to work async, why can't I hire Jan in Karlin, Prague or Jagmeet in Koramangla, Bangalore? This means I can also enhance FCF positivity while not impacting delivery. Cultural differences. Things like "saving face" / not being able to admit a lack of kn…

It doesn't matter anymore. Output is good enough - much of Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia, Broadcom, and other tech companies backbone infra or core IP is already implemented and owned by product and engineering teams in Poland and India or by foreign nationals in the US on work visas (eg. PyTorch). And if middle managers cannot manage to maintain output when faced with those with cultural differences, we'll…

So you just discovered offshoring of jobs? Like it has been going for the past decades. I don't see how AI or twitter changes anything to the outlook of the C suite. Lower spending increase productivity. If hiring Poles instead of Americans can achieve this goal, they were always going to do that.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#792

Post by jamesnorden »

rottencupcakes wrote: post #341
rappatic wrote: post #13

i'm gonna write this terrible news in all lowercase cause it's super aesthetic. maintain a bit of professionalism for the 4,000 people whose lives i'm throwing into turmoil? i don't think so, i have my shift key taped over so i don't accidentally show respect to anybody

i like it. it's how you show you didn't use ai to write the message.

Some sentences use "i’m" and others "i'm", he definitely used AI.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#793

Post by dkrich »

pavlov wrote: post #780
noname120 wrote: post #759

Earlier quoted context omitted.

X is the exact opposite of in “maintenance mode” by any counts

Really? Has it meaningfully changed since 2022? Everything they promised like payments and a "super app" seems to have fallen by the wayside.

Also have to consider that it’s now private which removes the pressure of having to show any semblance of a profit or, critically, share usage or advertising statistics which could (and probably are) down dramatically since the acquisition. Being private allows the fictitious storyline to persist that “we’re doing great and everyone is using our products.”

Re: Layoffs at Block

#794

Post by jalapenos »

DebtDeflation wrote: post #694
tombert wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm convinced that these "AI Layoffs" are these companies trying to save face from the absurd overhiring that they did in 2022 and 2023 because apparently they thought that these no-interest loans/free money would just last forever. No one really "knows" how to grow businesses so the easiest way to spend a lot of money quickly is hiring lots of people, whether or not they are "necessary". Then this free money dries u…

> the absurd overhiring that they did in 2022 and 2023 The overhiring took place from mid 2020 through mid 2022. The reversal into layoffs started in late 2022 and was in full swing in 2023. While the overhiring problem was real, the correction was largely complete over a year ago. The layoffs we're seeing today have nothing to do with overhiring and everything to do with managing earnings to sustain equity valuation…

> managing earnings to sustain equity valuations

That's an interesting take, so eventually they'll just run out of these tricks and at that point the valuations will burst?

Re: Layoffs at Block

#795

Post by watwut »

com2kid wrote: post #507
hirsin wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Twitter layoffs being used as proof of _anything_ is misguided no matter what you're trying to say. If success is losing half their revenue, reverting to revenue numbers from a decade ago, I gotta know what failure looks like. You might argue that the revenue losses aren't correlated to their headcount changes and probably make a good argument, but I mean... It's not a great one

Everyone predicted twitter would crash and burn within months of the layoffs. It didn't. Anyone who has worked at a large company knows that 1/2 the staff there is stuck keeping the lights on because it is easier to hire a warm body than fix tech debt. I've worked at companies that are literally 10x more effective than other competitors in the market purely due to good engineering practices. Even within large compani…

> Everyone predicted twitter would crash and burn within months of the layoffs.

I remember people celebrating and praising Musk, predicting new era of free speech twitter that earns tons of money and is massively effective.

Meanwhile, it lost on value, lost on income, became nazi echo chamber and overall much worst version of itself. It did not "crash and burned" simply because Musk was willing to pay huge amount of money for all of that. What it shows is that original engineering was good and reliable, actually.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#796

Post by Kwpolska »

matsemann wrote: post #637
arzke wrote: post #595

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if the lack of capital letters is a clever trick to make this whole annoucement look more humane and natural. Surely it's intentional: only "U.S" deserves capitals, not even his own name in the signature.

Why does he write i’m at some sentences but i'm at others (different ')?

The 2021 answer would be that he wrote part of this in a basic text editor, and part in a word processor that does “smart quotes”.

The 2026 answer is that an AI wrote some parts.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#797

Post by bawana »

A parallel but not too different situation is happening in the hospital space. Corps fire experienced nurses and hire newbies at half the price. Then they realize the newbies aren't performing so they downsize staff. Then a flu or other seasonal event drives up need for staff so they turn to temp agencies (per diem nurses or 'travelers'). These travelers get 150% to 200% of what staff nurses get. The remaining staff nurses start to leave and become per diem. hospital costs double, quality of care declines.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#798

Post by rco8786 »

mattmaroon wrote: post #410
paxys wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Square was the first great checkout system, but now a decade and a half later every other system is good enough that retailers aren't going to pay extra for a flashier app.

It’s not extra and their hardware is still far better than the competition. Square is still awesome in the small business PoS space. Their lead has not shrunk.

> Their lead has not shrunk

It has though, by a lot. Toast in particular has eaten Square's lunch in the restaurant industry and now they're expanding to retail. Even NCR has caught up, along with a long tail of newer competitors eating away at market share.

There was a window of time where Square was the default choice for small biz POS and that is most definitely not the case anymore.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#799

Post by bionaut »

salviati wrote: post #636
tombert wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm convinced that these "AI Layoffs" are these companies trying to save face from the absurd overhiring that they did in 2022 and 2023 because apparently they thought that these no-interest loans/free money would just last forever. No one really "knows" how to grow businesses so the easiest way to spend a lot of money quickly is hiring lots of people, whether or not they are "necessary". Then this free money dries u…

It might actually be that they mean what they say. If you look at the numbers, this doesn’t resemble a company cutting because it’s in trouble. Block is profitable, gross profit has been growing double-digits year over year, and they’re guiding roughly ~18% gross profit growth into 2026 with strong expected expansion in adjusted operating income and EPS. That’s not a balance-sheet emergency. You can argue they overhi…

Or it just really is AI.

Maybe Dario Amodei saying this tsunami is coming and people are arguing it is not a tsunami and just a trick of the light are wrong.

We have had a giant bubble in white collar bullshit jobs the last 15 years and AI is going to pop that bubble incredible fast.

That doesn't mean the brilliant programmer is going to be replaced by Claude Code. The brilliant programmer type + AI what is going to do the popping, put more people out of work and massively gain from it financially themselves.

In other words, an extension of the same process that has been going on for the last 30 years.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#800

Post by kypro »

mistrial9 wrote: post #520
wmf wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jack Dorsey looks like a homeless person and he spends his time meditating and talking about Bitcoin. People knew what they were getting into.

> looks like a homeless person I have heard this once in a while.. really it refers to a hair grooming aesthetic that is disallowed somehow, perhaps. > he spends his time meditating said like it is a bad thing. Of course yes, this is a bad thing to many people, I agree.. but among very smart people in California, if he really does that well, it is a plus actually.. > talking about Bitcoin very polarizing, with grands…

The homeless person thing was a bit of a mean way to put it, but I don't think the parent commenter meant it critically or as an insult tbh, more an observation.

Dorsey is a certain type of character. For good or bad, it's worth understanding those who you associate with or who you allow to hold authority over you so you're not surprised when they act in entirely predictable ways.

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