Jack Dorsey says Block employees now bring prototypes, not slides, to meetings (businessinsider.com)

by taubek 90 comments 74 points
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90 comments

[−] puttycat 41d ago
[−] halJordan 41d ago
Literally Ars Technica reviewing anything
[−] senko 41d ago
OMG yes. The most egregious in movie/tvshow trailer reviews.

Who tf cares about a random quote included in the trailer?

Here's a subtitle for a He-Man movie trailer from the other day: "Skeletor took my family and he destroyed our world."

I mean, anything would have been better than that, and "Another attempt at live action movie based on 80s action figure" or even "in theatres on X.Y." would be Pulitzer material in comparison.

[−] y0eswddl 41d ago
lol, what a gem (positive) that essay is turning into
[−] MeetingsBrowser 41d ago
In this case, a CEO is reaffirming their decision to layoff thousands because of AI was the correct decision.
[−] nozzlegear 41d ago
"CEO retroactively justified a thing they did by saying a thing" journalism?
[−] zx8080 41d ago
Just "shit". No need to overthink it.
[−] pwarner 41d ago
I work at a less innovative place, and I see out product managers coming with prototypes, at least solid mock ups rather than just a jira. They socialize it with potential users, they iterate, they find missing requirements, it's pretty powerful. The net result is we're building better features faster.
[−] al_borland 41d ago
If I showed upper management a functional prototype in a first meeting about a future product, they would assume it was already done and ask when it could ship, while not accepting any dates further out than a month in the future. No way I’d set myself up for failure like that.
[−] Ozzie_osman 41d ago
I listened to his podcast episode on the Sequoia podcast a few days ago. Interestingly, his argument was "we don't need middle managers" and he plans to have all 6000 employees eventually report to him.

In other words, companies don't need managers anymore. Except for one manager. Him.

[−] convexly 41d ago
At face value this seemed cool, but the more I think about it slides or prototypes are the same thing, just a different kind of theater.
[−] musicale 41d ago

> "I hate the way people use slide presentations instead of thinking," Jobs once said, according to a book published last month by David Pogue. "People who know what they're talking about don't need PowerPoint.

"Keynote began as a computer program for Apple CEO Steve Jobs to use in creating the presentations for Macworld Conference and Expo and other Apple keynote events."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keynote_(presentation_software...

[−] buildbot 41d ago
Block signed a friend of mine, they quit their other job, then block was like whoops layoffs including people like this person who hadn’t even started. Super unethical.
[−] 0xy 41d ago
If Block were experiencing rapid productivity improvements from AI why is their flagship Square product still worse than Toast? Toast is eating their lunch day after day.
[−] delphic-frog 41d ago
I feel like he's just doing it for attention.
[−] lvl155 41d ago
Prototypes of what? What new products came out of Block in the past six years since pandemic? This makes it sound like Block is a place of innovations when it’s just a rent seeking enterprise.
[−] altmanaltman 41d ago

> "I hate the way people use slide presentations instead of thinking," Jobs once said, according to a book published last month by David Pogue.

I wonder what he'll think about these vibecoded prototypes and if it's more thinking or less thinking

[−] iainctduncan 41d ago
And this is better how exactly? If you're running a business, do you not want to catch employees mistakes as early as possible? Most ideas are crap. I'd way rather they get elimated after someone spent an hour making slides than a day vibecoding a prototype.

And then there is the problem that vibecoding is addictive so the more one has done of it on the prototype, the worse one's judgement of whether it's actually something worth building...

[−] duxup 41d ago
Generally I feel like that I always could do this ... it just wasn't always requested / time budgeted / folks didn't expect or care.
[−] fredgrott 41d ago
I have to speak up....

Maybe if he had one freaking friend he would realize how effing stupid he has become...

BTW, the easiest way to get fired right now...is to over-use AI in an attempt to fool a domain expert.....or in short do not use it to perform in senior position interviews!

Yes, there is even a compliance post(podcast) about Delve talking about that context aspect of it...

[−] loteck 41d ago
Since the crux of this seems to be about replacing middle managers, what do people think prevents AI from successfully managing 140 direct reports on day to day operations on behalf of a lone CEO? I'm reading "it doesn't work," but that sounds like more of a potential opportunity to me than a truism.
[−] risyachka 41d ago
I bet, considering the massive skill needed for it: "hey claude, turn this presentation into a prototype".
[−] just_once 41d ago
I'm not sure what the flex is here.

Is the idea that prototypes give the Permission Granter more fidelity into a proposal and therefore can make better decisions? Whereas before, with Slide Decks, the Permission Granter couldn't experience certain things and therefore couldn't make as good decisions to grant permissions?

So in effect this remains a billionaire figure speaking from their own perspective and we're supposed to care?

[−] samtheprogram 41d ago
Sounds like Apple under Steve Jobs.
[−] hapless 41d ago
After his stunt with the mass firings "because of AI," employees now bring prototypes, not slides, to meetings with Jack Dorsey.

These clowns live in a dreamworld created by their PAs and cronies