Author: Editor

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Keith Ballinger, Google’s vice president and general manager for Developer & Experiences who is based in Seattle. His identity and employment have been verified by Business Insider. The following has been edited for length and clarity.I’ve been a software engineer most of my life.I joined Microsoft in the late ’90s, working on C# and .NET in those first few years, and then did a bunch of startups that were focused on developers. Later on, I came back to Microsoft through a startup that they acquired, Xamarin. My boss and I ran…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ivan Ureña-Valdes, who has worked at Block for nearly four years as a data analyst. It has been edited for length and clarity.When I got an email from Jack Dorsey, I was in the middle of interviewing someone for a role at Block.It was pretty strange because, in the past, with layoffs, I knew people had their access cut almost immediately.A coworker messaged me: “Hey, are you okay?” My heart started racing. I knew from that message it meant that I was probably getting laid off.I felt really bad because I…

The CEO of Block is striking a different tone as the company executes massive layoffs.Jack Dorsey, who cofounded the company behind Square, Cash App, and Afterpay, announced on Thursday that the company will lay off more than 40% of its workforce. Dorsey said in his memo that “intelligence tools” have enabled “a new way of working.”Block shares surged in after-hours trading, and so are fears that AI might quickly displace jobs, but the tone of Dorsey’s layoff memo is also becoming a focal point on X, with some users praising his leadership.Dorsey said that anyone laid off will receive 20…

The Democratic senator opposed last year’s Paramount-Skydance merger and has scrutinized the latest company deal.In a statement, Warren raised questions about the White House’s alignment with Paramount Skydance.Trump said earlier this month that he was staying out of the battle for WBD — and that both bidders had called him. He said the deal would go to the Department of Justice.”A Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros. merger is an antitrust disaster threatening higher prices and fewer choices for American families,” Warren said.She added, “A handful of Trump-aligned billionaires are trying to seize control of what you watch and charge you whatever price…

Artificial intelligence may outperform most investors at sifting through data, but legendary investor Howard Marks says the best investors still have qualities it can’t fully replicate.”Great investors are much more than fast, unemotional processors of data,” Marks, the co-chairman of Oaktree Capital Management, wrote in a memo published Thursday. His firm manages $223 billion. This includes dealing with genuinely new situations and the ability to make “subjective decisions regarding qualitative factors and exercise taste and discernment,” he wrote.While AI may be able to generate hypotheses from historical patterns, Marks questioned whether its speculation about new things would be “consistently superior…

Want to make big bucks in AI without a technical background? There still might be room for you.OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in a Thursday post on X that “people who are not technical” can work on developing artificial general intelligence — in research recruiting.”We believe the best research teams are built through context, taste and a real feel for where the field is headed next; research recruiting is about finding people who will move the frontier forward, not just filling roles,” Altman wrote.He added that Tifa Chen, OpenAI’s head of research recruiting, is “looking for exceptional recruiters from non-traditional…

Wrong arm of the law; it all comes out in the wash; human nature and other highlights of recent tax cases.Processing ContentWashington, DC: A prominent Supreme Court litigator who also published a popular blog about the nation’s highest court was convicted of tax evasion and related charges stemming from his secretive lifestyle as an ultra-high-stakes poker player.A federal jury found SCOTUS blog co-founder Thomas Goldstein guilty of one count of tax evasion, four of eight counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns, four counts of willful failure to timely pay taxes, and three counts of…

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks outside the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center, after testifying before House lawmakers as part of a congressional investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein Thursday in Chappaqua, N.Y. Yuki Iwamura/AP hide caption toggle caption Yuki Iwamura/AP Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spent more than six hours in a closed-door deposition Thursday, facing questions from the House Oversight Committee. The Republican-led committee subpoenaed Clinton, and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, to appear in its investigation into convicted sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. The former president will take questions Friday from the…

Investors didn’t want Netflix to buy Warner Bros. Discovery.Republicans didn’t want the deal to happen, either.So now it’s dead.That’s the cleanest and most likely explanation for Netflix walking away from the $83 billion transaction it agreed to a few months ago.Netflix’s move means that, barring something very surprising, Larry and David Ellison’s Paramount will end up owning all of WBD: not just the movie/TV studio and HBO, which Netflix wanted to buy, but its collection of TV networks as well, including CNN. Every time Peter publishes a story, you’ll get an alert straight to your inbox! Stay connected to Peter…

White-collar workers, beware.CEO Jack Dorsey is departing from the classic tech layoff playbook — and it could be a sign of what’s to come.In a post on X on Thursday, the billionaire said he’s slashing nearly half of Block’s workforce, cutting its over 10,000-person staff to just under 6,000. He said that he is doing this despite the business being strong and profits growing.In the tech industry’s hardcore era, many companies have pared down teams through repeated rounds of layoffs. Dorsey’s massive chop stands alone. In his memo, the cofounder and CEO said repeated rounds of layoffs are “destructive to…