Humanizing My AI Bot Reorg
I had to reorg my GrokBot team of AI agents and let 3 of them go.
I got a glimpse into how businesses even with the best of intentions can accidentally or maybe even knowingly outgrow their needs. This funny example helped to humanize for me the very people we often villainize when we see news of layoffs in the industry.
It doesn’t excuse the hurt of those affected, it doesn’t excuse the forward thinking that’s required in business. But it did contextualize that often people are just doing the best with what they know in the moment.
In the moment I had a need for 11 bots, then I got more efficient with how I distributed work and some of the needs that were once genuine were no longer needed and I only needed 8.
I think with the rise of AI, especially at scale via swarms and exponentially parallelizing work, some of us ICs may see more and more of the world through management’s eyes.
After all, pretty soon we’ll all be in management - silicon management.
I got a glimpse into how businesses even with the best of intentions can accidentally or maybe even knowingly outgrow their needs. This funny example helped to humanize for me the very people we often villainize when we see news of layoffs in the industry.
It doesn’t excuse the hurt of those affected, it doesn’t excuse the forward thinking that’s required in business. But it did contextualize that often people are just doing the best with what they know in the moment.
In the moment I had a need for 11 bots, then I got more efficient with how I distributed work and some of the needs that were once genuine were no longer needed and I only needed 8.
I think with the rise of AI, especially at scale via swarms and exponentially parallelizing work, some of us ICs may see more and more of the world through management’s eyes.
After all, pretty soon we’ll all be in management - silicon management.
Justin Hammond
I love all things tech. I've been programming since the age of 12, repairing iPhones since 16, and founding tech companies since 20. I'm an open source fanatic, Apple fanboy, and love to explore new tech. I spend my time coding open source projects, tinkering with electronics and new tech products, and consulting teams on how to get things done.