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The Economy Is K-Shaped
18 days ago
- The stock market is up while grocery bills are also rising.
- The economy is described as booming but driven by only a few companies investing in GPUs.
- AI acts like a dam, trapping economic gains at the top.
- Productivity increases significantly without corresponding job growth.
- Economic surplus is reinvested in more computing power.
- Stock markets reach all-time highs while wages stagnate for decades.
- The economic ladder is being pulled up, with middle-tier jobs automated away.
- What remains are high-end roles and tasks robots cannot yet perform.
- Owning equity or hardware becomes the new entry requirement for economic success.
- Trickle-down economics is ineffective, creating a split between those above and below the economic dam.
AI has torched the market for junior programmers
16 days ago
- AI has significantly reduced job opportunities for junior programmers, with employment among developers aged 22-25 down 19% since late 2022.
- The total number of software developers has grown by 10% from May 2022 to May 2025, but the decline in junior roles is masked in aggregate data due to their small workforce share.
- Traditional programming jobs focused on writing code to spec are shrinking, while roles requiring judgment, such as data scientists and systems analysts, are growing.
- A surge in new developers is evident, with GitHub adding 36 million accounts and App Store submissions rising 24% in 2025, but many of these individuals do not identify as programmers.
- The career pipeline for senior developers is at risk because AI now handles junior-level tasks, breaking the traditional apprenticeship model within employment.
- Security concerns are rising as AI-generated code often fails basic tests, and many new apps have critical flaws, highlighting a lack of oversight.
- Some companies, like IBM, are redesigning entry-level roles to focus on customer contact and specification, while others, such as Salesforce, have halted hiring.
- Job postings for entry-level positions began recovering in May 2025, suggesting a potential market correction, but rebuilding the career ladder remains crucial for the profession's future.
People Who Will Thrive in the AI Age
15 days ago
- AI adoption has led to increased work intensity and multitasking, not reduced workloads.
- People often use time saved by AI to take on new tasks, leading to crowded schedules and reduced focused work.
- "AI brain fry" describes a state where mental effort declines, with brain connectivity dropping by up to 55% when using AI tools.
- Individuals with a low need for cognition may become more productive but risk diminished mental capacities due to over-reliance on AI.
- Those with a medium need for cognition may intend to avoid AI dependency but often succumb to its seductive efficiency in stressful daily life.
- High-need-for-cognition individuals thrive on mental challenges and use AI strategically to enhance their capabilities without surrendering agency.
- AI can foster cognitive surrender, where users accept AI-generated content uncritically, undermining critical thinking and motivation.
- Strategies to resist AI entropy include asking for hints instead of answers, starting tasks independently, and rotating AI-assisted and non-AI tasks.
- Education systems should shift focus from content delivery to cultivating volition, curiosity, and the desire for cognitive complexity.
- AI lacks intrinsic desires, a self, and the capacity for growth through struggle, highlighting human uniqueness in aspiration and effort.
Tech firms are blaming AI for device and console price rises
15 days ago
- Tech companies are increasing prices for older devices and consoles, reversing the trend of decreasing costs over time.
- Apple and Microsoft are among the firms raising prices, citing rising component costs due to high AI demand for chips like RAM.
- AI data centers are driving up demand for memory chips, leading to shortages and price surges, with RAM prices more than doubling recently.
- Consumer electronics like MacBooks are competing with AI data centers for the same components, resulting in higher prices for devices.
- Inflation and geopolitical issues, such as the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, are compounding the memory shortage and price increases.
- Critics, including Senator Bernie Sanders, accuse tech firms of 'corporate greed,' as companies report strong revenue growth despite price hikes.
- Analysts predict the constrained supply situation could last up to two years, with prices expected to remain high or continue rising.
Microsoft Lays Off Nearly 5K Employees Across Xbox, Commercial Sales
14 days ago
- Microsoft announced 4,800 layoffs (2.1% of global workforce), with Xbox and commercial sales hit hardest; Xbox lost 1,600 staff.
- Executives cited industry changes and AI transforming work, but stated roles are not directly replaced by AI, emphasizing need for skill adaptation.
- Xbox restructuring includes cutting management layers, refocusing on core pillars like Minecraft and Candy Crush, and transitioning four gaming studios.
- Layoffs correlate with Microsoft's AI investment, including a $2.5 billion Frontier Company unit, amid broader tech industry job cuts totaling ~154,000 in H1 2026.
- Microsoft reported redeploying over 4,000 employees into new roles in the past year, aiming to reskill and retain staff despite reductions.
A brewing battle: More IT workers want unions. The industry doesn't
12 days ago
- Tech professionals are increasingly considering unions due to layoffs, disillusionment with Big Tech, and fears of AI displacement.
- Union interest is rising, driven by job security concerns, AI surveillance threats, and ideological disillusionment, though membership remains low.
- Organizing efforts face challenges from employer pushback, legal delays, and distributed workforces, yet some successes show union benefits like AI protections and four-day workweeks.
The Myth of the Solo Unicorn
12 days ago
- Ronald Coase's paper 'The Nature of the Firm' explained that firms exist because transaction costs (like finding talent and negotiating) make it cheaper to organize work internally than in the open market.
- AI dramatically reduces production and coordination costs, fueling the myth of a one-person billion-dollar company, but it does not eliminate trust costs, which are crucial for business survival.
- A product can be built solo, but a company requires trust systems for procurement, enterprise sales, compliance, and accountability—areas where a solo founder often fails.
- Procurement in large organizations prioritizes confidence and risk management over product demos, making it difficult for one-person companies to scale due to perceived single points of failure.
- AI can generate infinite content, but effective marketing relies on judgment, resonance, and timing—skills that remain scarce and valuable despite automation.
- The future lies in 'fractional enterprises': small, leveraged teams of full-stack executives orchestrating agents, contractors, and tools, balancing automation with human trust and accountability.
- Key metrics shift from headcount to revenue density (revenue per employee), as companies like WhatsApp demonstrated high value with minimal staff, signaling a new business model.
- AI enables more people to start companies with lower costs, likely increasing the number of firms and jobs, contrary to predictions of job loss from automation.
Tech workers in 2026: a workforce splitting in two
10 days ago
- Tech workers in 2026 are splitting into two groups: those who feel amplified by AI (49%), experiencing more capability and excitement, and those who feel destabilized (13.9%) or diminished (5%), leading to lower optimism and higher burnout.
- Burnout has surged to 55.7% (up from 44.7% in 2025), while career optimism has dropped to 48.7% (down from 54.8%). Layoff worry is high, with 41.2% moderately worried, and it strongly correlates with pessimism.
- Over half of tech workers (53%) would not recommend their own field to newcomers, indicating a loss of faith in career paths despite personal optimism, with roles like designers and researchers being most negative.
- AI boosts productivity for 82% of workers, but many fear it compromises work quality and mental sharpness, with concerns about producing more output faster rather than better.
- The primary fear isn't job loss to AI (22%), but being overworked: 51% worry about doing more for the same pay, 46% about unsustainable pace, and 41% about declining work quality.
- Ambivalence is widespread: 77% have both positive and negative emotions about AI, with common feelings being curious, excited, overwhelmed, and tired, reflecting a complex 'smiling exhaustion'.
- Designers and researchers report the highest AI anxiety, job loss fear, and worst manager ratings, while founders and small company employees are happiest and least burned out.
- Manager effectiveness is a key lever for happiness, strongly impacting burnout and job enjoyment, but only 25.5% rate their manager as highly effective, with many roles like design having poor ratings.
- The tech industry is described as 'chaotic' by many, with themes of uncertainty and rapid change, split between excitement and dread depending on individual outlook.
- Key trends persist from 2025: founders remain the happiest, small companies are better workplaces, and remote/work location has minimal impact on sentiment, with AI identity being the strongest predictor of career feelings.
Competitive Programming in the Era of AI
10 days ago
- Competitive programming faces a new era with AI, where solutions can be easily generated, leading to widespread cheating.
- AI-assisted unfair players cause rating deflation, estimated at 150-190 points, harming genuine participants and creating a vicious cycle.
- Recommendations for genuine contestants include detaching from rating, participating in offline contests, and using virtual contests from pre-AI eras.
- Using AI for practice should be limited; avoid relying on it for debugging to develop critical skills manually.
- Proposed contest structure changes include AI-based cheating detection, rating performance monitoring, public reporting, and stricter account verification.
- Despite AI challenges, competitive programming retains value in training problem-solving skills, with a focus on personal growth over leaderboard rankings.
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, who laid off 3,200 employees, to lead task force on jobs
7 days ago
- The US Federal Reserve has created five task forces to evaluate and improve its operations.
- Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, who recently announced layoffs of 3,200 employees, will co-lead a task force on employment and productivity.
- The task force will assess the economic impact of new technologies like AI to inform Federal Reserve policy.
- Sharma will be joined by Stanford professor Charles I. Jones and tech investor Marc Andreessen.
- Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh emphasized the commitment to price stability and maximum employment.
- Sharma's appointment comes amid her increased responsibilities at Xbox, including direct oversight of Mojang and King.
- Updates on the task forces' work will be posted periodically on the Federal Reserve's website.
No hiring if an AI can do the job, staff at mining giant told
4 days ago
- Mineral Resources implements a hiring freeze for roles that can be performed by AI or existing employees using AI tools.
- Other major Australian companies like WiseTech, Atlassian, and Commonwealth Bank have also cut jobs or restructured due to AI adoption.
- A federal government report indicates slower employment growth in occupations most exposed to AI, especially routine cognitive roles.
- Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced new AI standards and an Office of AI to regulate and manage the AI transition.
- Businesses are using AI for tasks like demand prediction, but some face challenges, such as increased workloads from AI implementations.
- Experts note that AI's impact on jobs is currently minimal but may lead to shifts in skill demands and employment patterns.
- Companies like BHP and Fortescue emphasize AI as a tool to enhance operations while maintaining human judgment in decision-making.
- Employee monitoring and office attendance policies are being tightened in some firms to boost productivity, raising concerns about worker motivation.
The Human-in-the-Loop Is Tired
4 days ago
- LLMs make programming genuinely useful but also destabilizing, leading to burnout if ignored.
- Development with LLMs introduces 'fatigue of supervision': reviewing AI-generated code lacks the satisfaction of traditional programming and feels lonely.
- AI increases work intensity and parallel task initiation but doesn't improve thoughtful completion, creating a 'human reward function problem'.
- LLM-assisted programming shifts skills rather than eliminates them, emphasizing taste, nuance, and architectural expertise as key differentiators.
- New skills are emerging, like pre-mortem analysis and encoding expertise into LLM instructions, showing evolution rather than death of craft.
Google workers demand layoff protections amid AI boom in petition to CEO
2 days ago
- Google workers petition for layoff protections, citing AI investment as tech companies cut jobs.
- Petition demands guaranteed severance, buyouts before layoffs, and end to performance ratings based on quotas.
- Alphabet Workers Union highlights 2023 mass layoffs and criticizes Google's profit-over-people approach.
- Meta and Oracle also face AI-related layoffs, with workers suing over AI-driven termination decisions.
- Union campaign previously secured voluntary exit packages for over 70,000 Alphabet employees.
Aging Baby Boomers are America's real labor problem, not AI
a day ago
- For 250 years, the U.S. economy benefited from a steadily growing workforce, but this growth is ending due to falling birth rates and Baby Boomer retirements, with a projected loss of nearly 6 million workers by 2032.
- While AI sparks fears of job losses, evidence shows limited widespread displacement; instead, hiring remains strong in AI-related fields, and the most severe labor shortages are in sectors like healthcare, construction, and skilled trades, which are less susceptible to AI disruption.
- A mismatch exists between occupations facing demographic pressures (e.g., healthcare, trades) and those with available labor (e.g., white-collar roles), creating barriers due to licensing, retraining, geography, and wage expectations, which hinder workers from transitioning quickly.
- Employers must adopt strategic workforce planning, invest in apprenticeships and training pipelines, and use AI to improve job matching by highlighting skill transfers and career transitions, as they can no longer rely solely on searching for existing talent.
- Workers need to adapt by building transferable skills and remaining open to industry shifts, as career paths become less linear; AI tools can help identify how existing skills apply to new roles, reducing mismatches and supporting economic growth despite a shrinking labor force.

Hasty Briefsbeta

#ai impact

The Economy Is K-Shaped

AI has torched the market for junior programmers

People Who Will Thrive in the AI Age

Tech firms are blaming AI for device and console price rises

Microsoft Lays Off Nearly 5K Employees Across Xbox, Commercial Sales

A brewing battle: More IT workers want unions. The industry doesn't

The Myth of the Solo Unicorn

Tech workers in 2026: a workforce splitting in two

Competitive Programming in the Era of AI

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, who laid off 3,200 employees, to lead task force on jobs

No hiring if an AI can do the job, staff at mining giant told

The Human-in-the-Loop Is Tired

Google workers demand layoff protections amid AI boom in petition to CEO

Aging Baby Boomers are America's real labor problem, not AI