Alain Chan

decoding complexity into products @humanyze. prev people analytics @broadinstitute, growth @uber. nyc/toronto via sf via hk. working on the basics.

[Alain Chan @_alainchan]

Curious how others are seeing this: what’s one change you’re already noticing in how your team works?

[Alain Chan @_alainchan]

Org charts were built for 9–5.
Soon they’ll run 24/7.
And that’s probably for the better.

Here’s why:

[Alain Chan @_alainchan]

AI isn’t just changing jobs.
It’s changing what a company is.

And the org chart?

It was always just a temporary solution.

[Alain Chan @_alainchan]

4. Default to networks over hierarchy: Share context early. Don’t gate information. If information asymmetry is your only edge, it’s time to build a real one.

[Alain Chan @_alainchan]

2. Think in tasks, not roles: Break your work into components. Automate, delegate, or augment each one. Then reinvest the capacity to build your edges.
3. Build “edges,” not just depth: Learn just enough design, code, or build in whatever ways. Execute without waiting.

[Alain Chan @_alainchan]

So what should you actually do?

A few things that seem to matter already:
1. Reduce your own coordination cost: Fewer meetings (or at least batch them). Better docs. More async. More leverage.

[Alain Chan @_alainchan]

And productivity might finally be breaking out of a 50-year slowdown (as @pmarca recently pointed out).

[Alain Chan @_alainchan]

It’s a total-sum game in the long run.

Tasks change or even disappear. But jobs persist.

We’ve seen this before:
Executives used to dictate. Assistants used to type.
Now everyone types - and assistants do higher-leverage work.

AI is the same pattern. Just faster.

[Alain Chan @_alainchan]

That’s why people (myself included) feel uneasy right now.

PMs, engineers, designers - it’s a bit of a standoff (straight out of a John Woo scene).
Everyone can suddenly do parts of each other’s jobs.

Feels threatening. Feels zero-sum.

But it’s not. The pie is expanding.

[Alain Chan @_alainchan]

I’ve spent the last 10+ years studying high-performing teams & orgs.

The pattern is always the same: Less hierarchy. More network.
- Knowledge flows freely
- Collaboration isn’t gated
- Titles matter less than contributions

AI doesn’t create this. It scales it.

[Alain Chan @_alainchan]

When coordination becomes cheap, org charts break.

Teams form faster. Roles overlap. Work flows to whoever (or whatever) can execute best.

Feels chaotic.
But it doesn’t have to be.

[Alain Chan @_alainchan]

Now something fundamental is changing:

AI is collapsing coordination costs.
What used to require meetings, handoffs, approvals…can now run continuously.

Across time zones. Across roles.

Not 9-5. But 24/7.

[Alain Chan @_alainchan]

The way we structure companies was never “natural.”
It was a response to constraints.

Farms→we worked when the sun was up
Factories→humans synchronized with machines
Offices→coordination required everyone in-office and online

9–5 wasn’t a culture. It was infrastructure.

[Alain Chan @_alainchan]

don’t: attach identity to things you own; do: create identity with knowledge, authenticity

[Alain Chan @_alainchan]

@vcstarterkit @bwaber

[Alain Chan @_alainchan]

Nothing more, nothing less.

[Alain Chan @_alainchan]

@balajis It’s also a key concept for high performance training: https://t.co/Q01w9Nejpe

[Alain Chan @_alainchan]

Another new chapter :>

[[email protected] @buzz]

I’ve often struggled to precisely describe Hacker News’s particular brand of obnoxiousness, but this pretty much nails it. https://t.co/NscjV0Ao5c

[Alain Chan @_alainchan]

Search within.

[Dalai Lama @DalaiLama]

I am a bit skeptical about what we call blessings. I believe the ultimate source of blessings is within us. A good motivation and honesty bring self-confidence, which attracts the trust and respect of others. Therefore, the real source of blessings is in our own mind.