32,576 Employees laid off so far.
Things might be different if we hadn’t grown so fast
32,576 employees laid off from the tech company
that are tracked in this list: https://layoffs.fyi/, and we are barely 2 months into 2024.
Things can go wrong when one moves too fast. Look at mortgage-backed securities (originally named: subprime mortgages) in 2007, low-to-zero interest rates, and growth at all costs for the past years.
These are all in hindsight but I think it’s worth reflecting on:
1) Will the public’s opinion toward blockchain/metaverse be better if they don’t soar during Covid and lead to speculating activities?
2) Will BNPL foster a better understanding of money rather than baiting the younger generation into spending unwisely when capital is cheap?
3) Will the majority of EV industry (especially in developing countries) find a cleaner way to excavate lithium batteries and not use coal/mines to power their grid for EV charging?
4) Will AI companies not poach data, and copyrighted material, or have better protection on privacy data? (Google has done it slowly for the past 10+ years, then OpenAI comes in and speeds it up)
-
It’s probably too ideal, but remember, people who want it and abuse it, are usually after profit, not actual improvement.
With the quality of living we have now, are we really in a rush to ‘move fast and break things’ — usually things that belong to the bottom 40?
It’s we who decide if we want to buy into every new technology immediately (indirectly hyping it up) or be more critical and invest our time and effort in something that we are interested in and aligns with our values.
