Manoj Soni

[jack @jack]

we're making @blocks smaller today. here's my note to the company.

####

today we're making one of the hardest decisions in the history of our company: we're reducing our organization by nearly half, from over 10,000 people to just under 6,000. that means over 4,000 of you are being asked to leave or entering into consultation. i'll be straight about what's happening, why, and what it means for everyone.

first off, if you're one of the people affected, you'll receive your salary for 20 weeks + 1 week per year of tenure, equity vested through the end of may, 6 months of health care, your corporate devices, and $5,000 to put toward whatever you need to help you in this transition (if you’re outside the U.S. you’ll receive similar support but exact details are going to vary based on local requirements). i want you to know that before anything else. everyone will be notified today, whether you're being asked to leave, entering consultation, or asked to stay.

we're not making this decision because we're in trouble. our business is strong. gross profit continues to grow, we continue to serve more and more customers, and profitability is improving. but something has changed. we're already seeing that the intelligence tools we’re creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company. and that's accelerating rapidly.

i had two options: cut gradually over months or years as this shift plays out, or be honest about where we are and act on it now. i chose the latter. repeated rounds of cuts are destructive to morale, to focus, and to the trust that customers and shareholders place in our ability to lead. i'd rather take a hard, clear action now and build from a position we believe in than manage a slow reduction of people toward the same outcome. a smaller company also gives us the space to grow our business the right way, on our own terms, instead of constantly reacting to market pressures.

a decision at this scale carries risk. but so does standing still. we've done a full review to determine the roles and people we require to reliably grow the business from here, and we've pressure-tested those decisions from multiple angles. i accept that we may have gotten some of them wrong, and we've built in flexibility to account for that, and do the right thing for our customers.

we're not going to just disappear people from slack and email and pretend they were never here. communication channels will stay open through thursday evening (pacific) so everyone can say goodbye properly, and share whatever you wish. i'll also be hosting a live video session to thank everyone at 3:35pm pacific. i know doing it this way might feel awkward. i'd rather it feel awkward and human than efficient and cold.

to those of you leaving…i’m grateful for you, and i’m sorry to put you through this. you built what this company is today. that's a fact that i'll honor forever. this decision is not a reflection of what you contributed. you will be a great contributor to any organization going forward.

to those staying…i made this decision, and i'll own it. what i'm asking of you is to build with me. we're going to build this company with intelligence at the core of everything we do. how we work, how we create, how we serve our customers. our customers will feel this shift too, and we're going to help them navigate it: towards a future where they can build their own features directly, composed of our capabilities and served through our interfaces. that's what i'm focused on now. expect a note from me tomorrow.

jack

[Manoj Soni @itsmanojsoni]

$INTC is up 7% today amid reports that Apple may be considering an investment in intel.

[Greg Brockman @gdb]

Today is World Autism Awareness Day.

My wife and I want to raise awareness of and help decrease any stigma around autism by sharing that my wife learned she has autism later in life—in her late 30s. It’s common for girls and women to have autism overlooked due to their often subtler signs. Reflecting on her childhood, she realized many signs were there but were framed as something else; one example would be her teachers' complaints that she was constantly “daydreaming” in class (to this day, her ability to “check-out” is phenomenal). Autism usually presents differently in girls and women, and society is particularly demanding of them socially, so my wife tried to fit in by unknowingly masking her autistic traits and devising hidden techniques to manage the influx of information (stimming).

That said, autism has given her some true superpowers, such as how she perceives the world, processes information, and quickly notices patterns. She’ll also tell you how it is—unvarnished and direct. However, her autism can come at a cost, one of which is requiring a lot of alone time (the fur kids and myself excluded) and downtime to rest and recover. There is an incredible, invisible effort required to navigate the world.

A beautiful trait of her autism is her deep connection to animals and attention to understanding their needs. If there’s a social event with an animal present, poof! she’s gone and you'll find her with the animal.

Her health journey has been intricate, as she has Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS), Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS). Learning about her autism was a gift to understand a large missing piece of herself, giving her greater self-empowerment to advocate for her needs, especially medically.

If given the chance, she (and I) wouldn’t change her autism even a little (though we can’t say the same for her hEDS, POTS, and MCAS!). My wife likes to say we all have universes within ourselves, and her autism is a wonderful universe.

[Sam Altman @sama]

incredible outperformance on goal 3, even though it took awhile:

https://t.co/5GpYOlN8HB

[Paul Graham @paulg]

People who don't want to learn how to program can always find a reason why not to. This time it's AI, last time it was that tech was over because the Internet Bubble burst, the time before that it was that all the programming jobs were going to be outsourced to India.

[Paul Graham @paulg]

My mother would have been 90 today. She was an interesting person and an extraordinarily good mother. The most useful bit of parenting advice I've heard is something she told me. "All you have to do is love them and show them the world."

[Manoj Soni @itsmanojsoni]

https://t.co/3p6XWh6eDU

[@levelsio @levelsio]

Trying Claude 3 today by @AnthropicAI for https://t.co/AkitGHWJv8

At first glance it feels slightly better than GPT4 and way better than Mistral etc.

The first thing I notice is that its responses seem MUCH more human than LLMs before it

"I know it may not feel like it right now, but you ARE going to get through this."

That ARE is quite human, and GPT4 would never capitalize emphasis like that unless you ask it to

[Manoj Soni @itsmanojsoni]

We definitely need a Netflix show on Ambani's wedding. It is just too entertaining!!!

[Manoj Soni @itsmanojsoni]

@GabbbarSingh So true! I believe it is the wrong strategy.

[Deedy @deedydas]

Huge Immigration News!

H-1B domestic renewal in the US for 20,000 people can start as soon as Jan '24!

This pilot meets ~10% of demand, who today wait an avg of 130 days to get a visa appt in their home country, and can't travel internationally without renewing every 3yrs.

1/3

[Manoj Soni @itsmanojsoni]

I think @dkhos is really good at building partnerships -
https://t.co/MeEC9GLy92

[Manoj Soni @itsmanojsoni]

Thanks for all the wisdom, Charlie Munger! RIP.

[Sam Altman @sama]

i love openai, and everything i’ve done over the past few days has been in service of keeping this team and its mission together. when i decided to join msft on sun evening, it was clear that was the best path for me and the team. with the new board and w satya’s support, i’m looking forward to returning to openai, and building on our strong partnership with msft.

[Gurpriya @GurpriyaSidhu]

OpenAI scandal is less Succession or Game of Thrones and more Sooraj Barjatya's Hum Saath Saath Hain.

Everyone loves everyone.
Minor feud.
Everyone loves everyone again.

[Emily Chang @emilychangtv]

I’m about to interview @satyanadella live on @BloombergTV at 3pPT/6pET.

Watch here: https://t.co/C1utaSF4kk

Questions???

[Ashlee Vance @ashleevance]

So, here's what happened at OpenAI tonight. Mira planned to hire Sam and Greg back. She turned Team Sam over past couple of days. Idea was to force board to fire everyone, which they figured the board would not do. Board went into total silence. Found their own CEO Emmett Shear

[Manoj Soni @itsmanojsoni]

This weekend is just too sad — the World Cup Final and the OpenAI drama.

[Manoj Soni @itsmanojsoni]

Bay Area has two kinds of people - One who already own Tesla, others who are planning to buy one.

[Naval @naval]

There are two people in you. The one who talks and the one who listens.

The one who talks is always changing. The one who listens is always the same.

You are the one who listens.