Meredith WhittakerJan 20, 2023
Early 2000s profitable startups gave their handful of workers novel perks/freedom. These cos/their workplace culture got big. Late 2010s tech labor gained power + made demands. Now a hint of recession = excuse to break promises/reestablish dominance over workers. It's not about $
Show threadTony WuerschJan 21, 2023
@Mer__edith my different theory is that top tech firms strategized to forestall competition, by hiring people who would otherwise fuel startups or build open source. The main threat now is anti-big-tech regulation, tho, not startups.
Show threadBen RosengartJan 21, 2023

@twersh @Mer__edith Tony, is there room in your theory for the palpable fury among the VC types against empowered tech workers? I am putting together from a few sources that they feel tremendous, overflowing resentment against us. They seem compelled to reassert the natural order of things: workers should flinch when capital speaks.

Listen to VC Josh Wolfe here: https://overcast.fm/+XxhDHF2RM ; and read Elon’s discovered texts through this lens and in the context of the collective rage at Twitter employees and over .

I believe the current tech situation can’t be understood without considering the affective dimension. These aren’t cold-eyed business decisions.

Josh Wolfe on Investing in American Defense — War on the Rocks

Ryan sat down with , co-founder of Lux Capital, in his New York office earlier this month to talk about why he is drawn to invest in companies working on national security challenges. But the conversation covered much more than that. They covered…

Show threadTony WuerschJan 24, 2023
@fivetonsflax @Mer__edith It's hard to generalize about motives for layoffs apart from that no one stands out as a villain when everyone else is doing it. VCs imo have little to say with respect to these big firms, they all have their own capital to invest. States, not VCs, threaten monopolies. Elon is the exception there; none of the others are sick children corps. I still think a reduction of the threat of mobile human capital lets these moves happen, now that a "coming recession" gives cover.
Show threadBen RosengartJan 24, 2023
@twersh @Mer__edith A lot of people have gotten rich, and gotten into the upper layers of these firms, by knowing and impressing VCs. They have a lot of influence and they are a self-conscious ideological vanguard.
Show threadNicole ParsonsJan 24, 2023

@fivetonsflax @twersh @Mer__edith

Layoffs are happening because Chris Hohn, manager of TCI hedge fund, has ordered Google, Facebook etc to do so.

This hedge fund manager lost money in 2022 making bad stock market bets. He terrorizes companies using Saudi money.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-20/hedge-fund-manager-chris-hohn-s-13-year-winning-streak-ends-as-fund-drops-18

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/01/23/google-staff-overpaid-company-must-cut-thousands-jobs-investor/

https://techstory.in/tci-fund-ceo-chris-hohn-calls-for-more-layoffs-and-salary-cuts-at-google/

Show threadBen Rosengart

@Npars01 @twersh @Mer__edith Very interesting, thank you.

Maybe I should just say capitalists have it in for tech workers. Or that capitalists have it in for workers, lol.

Jan 24, 2023 at 8:05amWeb