As engineering, product, design, DS, etc. melt into a new kind of role, I was reflecting on what roles might look like in the future. For example, when I look at the Claude Code team I see what I think is five archetypes:
1. Prototyper: comes up with brand new ideas; churns out many ideas, most of which don't ship
2. Builder: quickly turns a prototype/idea into production-grade product/infra
3. Sweeper: cleans up the UI, simplifies the code and system, unships, optimizes performance
4. Grower: takes a product that has been built and iterates on it to improve Product-Market Fit
5. Maintainer: owns a mature system to make it secure, reliable, fast, and efficient as it scales
Many people span across 2 roles, and sometimes 3 roles. I also notice that these roles are not really tied to job function -- eg. across Anthropic, some designers match category 1, some 2, some 3; same for engineers, PM, DS.
A healthy team needs a mix of these, depending on the product:
- A product that is new and pre-PMF needs people that are strong at 1+2+3
- A product that is growing and has found PMF needs 2+3+4 and some 5
- A product that has strong PMF needs 3+4+5 and some 2
Maybe product roles of the future will look more like this, and less like the domain-specific roles of today?
Now let's move over to Argentina. An almost identical dynamic playing out in that nation. The capture of Argentina by the Liberal New World Order was staggering. IMF loans had absolutely paralyzed it. Liberal governance everywhere! 🧙♀️✊️🦄🌊
Listen. 👇
Jonathan Ross, Founder and CEO of AI chip company Groq, offers a contrarian view: AI won't destroy jobs, it will create a labour shortage.
He outlines three things that will happen because of AI:
First, massive deflationary pressure.
"This cup of coffee is going to cost less. Your housing is going to cost less. Everything is going to cost less."
He explains this will happen through robots farming coffee more efficiently and better supply chain management, meaning people will need less money.
Second, people will opt out of the economy.
"They're going to work fewer hours. They're going to work fewer days a week, and they're going to work fewer years. They're going to retire earlier because they're going to be able to support their lifestyle working less."
Third, entirely new jobs and industries will emerge.
Jonathan points to history as evidence:
"Think about 100 years ago. 98% of the workforce in the United States was in agriculture. When we were able to reduce that to 2%, we found things for those other 98% of the population to do."
He continues:
"The jobs that are going to exist 100 years from now, we can't even contemplate."
Software developers didn't exist a century ago. In another century, they won't exist either, "because everyone's going to be vibe coding."
The same applies to influencers, a career that would have been unthinkable 100 years ago but now earns people millions.
His conclusion: deflationary pressure, workforce opt-outs, and new industries we can't yet imagine will combine to create one outcome...
"We're not going to have enough people."
The best companies:
1. Solve a problem
2. Build products people love
3. Hire top talent
4. Retain top talent
5. Clearly communicate
6. Under promise, over deliver
7. Give more than they take
8. Always play by the rules
9. Take long-term view of world
10. Constantly surprise you