but if you put into perspective what it would cost you a month for a graduate's salary - and you compare that to the max plan - the value for money is still astronomically incomparable
One of the best predictors of a company’s culture isn’t its mission statement or leadership philosophy - it’s whether people feel the need to document things to protect themselves. In a high-trust environment, verbal commitments are honored, and documentation is about clarity. In a low-trust environment, every agreement needs a paper trail to avoid blame.
How does your company handle this? Do people CC managers ‘just in case’? Have you ever seen someone get blamed because something wasn’t in writing?
The biggest challenge for organizations isn’t AI itself – it’s that they’ve become too large. For decades, companies have scaled by adding more people, more layers, more processes – but most of those layers aren’t about doing the actual work. They exist to manage complexity, relay information, and keep the machine running.
AI doesn’t just automate tasks – it removes the need for coordination in the first place. As soon as the cost of AI versus human labor makes sense – and the error rate drops low enough – entire layers of middle management, operations, and communication-heavy roles start disappearing. Not because companies want to cut jobs, but because the inefficiencies of large organizations become impossible to justify.
We’re not just talking about AI replacing workers – we’re talking about AI making companies rethink why they’re big in the first place. At some point, businesses will realize they don’t need thousands of employees to do what a lean team, combined with AI, can handle more efficiently.
When that tipping point comes – what happens to the entire structure of how companies operate today?
I’ve personally struggled with this myself throughout years of being a software engineer - it was never just about where I sat, but what it revealed about my own beliefs. Hopefully, this article gives some perspective if improving soft skills is something you’re working on.
I started this as a bit of a rant, but I’m sure many are in a similar position — stuck in large organizations where security feels more like a blocker than an enabler.
Security is meant to protect companies, but too often, it slows everything down, kills innovation, and forces engineers into endless approvals, meaningless compliance checklists, and fixing “critical” issues that don’t actually matter. The real problem isn’t security itself—it’s how organizations structure and apply it.
Curious to hear from others: Has security been a major friction point for you? Have you seen it done right anywhere?
I’m writing a ten-part series about something we don’t often question — not just who we are, but how we became this way, and how much of it we can actually change.
This first post dives into how we unknowingly absorb our beliefs in childhood and how, by the time we reach adulthood, they feel like undeniable truths—even when they’re just conditioning. Most of us assume our identity is just who we are, but in reality, we were shaped long before we could even think for ourselves. Our beliefs, fears, and limitations weren’t chosen—they were absorbed.
Some people grow up believing in themselves because their environment reinforced growth. Others inherit self-doubt, not because they were born that way, but because the people around them shaped their reality.
Would love to hear from others who’ve recognized this in themselves or questioned how much of their identity was shaped before they could think critically about it.
That’s a great point. Forced feedback has the high likelihood it's not fully genuine or authentic. And silence isn’t always agreement - sometimes it’s just learned self-preservation. When people don’t feel safe to speak honestly, the absence of complaints isn’t a sign that everything’s fine.
haha that's so relatable. Perfect example of someone just acting based on how they want to be perceived rather than how things actually are. The thing is, everyone else around sees right through it too which makes it all the more sadly humorous.
What I’ve realized is that a positive feedback environment isn’t just beneficial —it’s essential. When feedback is only about improvement (which is already a tough skill for managers to get right), employees start associating their actions with negative reinforcement. Over time, this conditions them to avoid risk, stay quiet, and play it safe — not because they were told to, but because they’ve learned that speaking up doesn’t feel worth it.
On the other hand, an environment that practices positive feedback doesn’t just recognize good work — it reinforces behaviors that encourage growth, confidence, and innovation. Over time, this creates a workplace where employees feel safe to take risks and contribute freely, rather than holding back.
We talk a lot about giving feedback in the workplace—trainings, frameworks, structured reviews. But what about the feedback we don’t even realize we’re giving?
The biggest driver of workplace culture isn’t what leaders say—it’s what they reinforce silently, over time.
If employees speak up and no one acknowledges it—what belief does that reinforce?
If risk-taking is ignored, but compliance is rewarded—what culture does that create?
If great work gets no reaction, but mistakes get scrutiny—what behaviors does that shape?
This isn’t just feedback. It’s conditioning. Over time, employees stop taking initiative — not because they were told not to, but because they’ve been subtly trained that it isn’t worth it.
What’s the most powerful workplace lesson you’ve learned — not because of what was said, but because of what was reinforced over time?
In the tech world, we get trained on how to give feedback — structured frameworks, courses on best practices. But what’s often missing in these discussions is a bigger question: What about the feedback we don’t realize we’re giving?
It’s not just about what we say — it’s about the environment we create. If a workplace lacks positive reinforcement, what kind of subconscious feedback loops does that create? Over time, it turns into conditioning — not just for individuals, but for entire teams and cultures.
Here’s the risk: Even silence is feedback.
If great work is consistently met with no reaction, what belief does that reinforce?
If risk-taking is subtly discouraged — not by explicit criticism, but by lack of recognition — what kind of long-term culture does that build?
It’s common to think growth comes from better strategies, but I believe it’s entirely dependent of the experience of its people and their own personal growth.
If people don’t grow, neither does the company.
Curious to hear your thoughts: Do companies focus enough on personal growth?
There are a number of other crypto coins that can be mined via the browser, most notably Nimiq which uses an algorithm (Argon2d) that is ASIC resistant meaning in theory it should be even more profitable for normal day users without high end GPU systems to mine.
Nimiq itself is making some pretty interesting tech implementations such as being written ground up in Javascript and rewriting core parts in Rust so it will run in the browser via web assembly. Their code base is worth checking out: https://github.com/nimiq-network/core
If there was actually a significant percentage of browsers that had this installed then it would ultimately affect the actual business model of ad sales. It would be really interesting to see what they could possibly come up with if CPC was no longer usable.