mass layoffs announced in tech sector: Meta (10%), Intuit (17%), Linkedin 500 jobs, Cisco (5%), Amazon

[fujiyamasan]

8. Many of these companies don't have a clue what they're doing

Some of the layoffs were due to overhiring during COVID (many were hired and not given clear job functions) and SaaS stock prices have been getting hammered for months (finally starting to make a bit of a recovery), prompting simple and lazy fixes like layoffs hoping to stem the bleeding. Intuit, for example just posted earnings earlier today and tanked after hours. Meta is spending billions in capex with little to show for it. LinkedIn is an absolute cesspool of AI generated slop and inauthenticity.

Anthropic has shown where the real value lies with Gen AI, and that’s definitely with code generation. While some of this is overblown (Anthropic ‘vibe coded’ apps aren’t going to destroy every software company out there), there’s no doubt that not as many coders will be needed. This isn’t to say vibe coding is perfect, but it’s constantly improving and it completely changes how the job is done.

Look, a lot of these folks were coasting making $300k plus a year. In capitalism everyone is expendable. That why my sympathy for these Silicon Valley layoffs is well…limited. They knew the future they were building.

I’m from the Midwest and I saw rounds of layoff after layoff form one industry to another — steel, automotive, etc. I saw a lot of bitching from the same people out west at the time about bailouts too.