All-In E103: Tech layoffs surge, big tech freezes hiring, optimizing for profits, election preview & more
Episode 103 • 11/5/2022
Major topics discussed:
Tech Layoffs and Hiring Freezes
- Major layoffs announced at Lyft (13%, 700 employees), Stripe (14%, 1000 employees), OpenDoor, Chime, Dapper Labs
- Twitter undergoing significant layoffs under Elon Musk
- Apple, Amazon, and other tech giants implementing hiring freezes
- Discussion of companies needing to focus on profitability over growth due to higher interest rates
- Chamath notes companies need to generate 10-11% returns to be better than government bonds
Economic Outlook
- Federal Reserve signals rates will be higher for longer than expected
- Strategic oil reserves depleted by almost 50%
- GDP showed growth but other indicators point to recession
- Sacks predicts a "serious recession" is beginning
Midterm Elections Preview
- Republican wave predicted in House races
- Senate races remain close, particularly in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona
- Discussion of Biden's messaging and approval ratings
- Analysis shows Biden's popularity matches Trump's at same point in presidency
Science Corner: Protein Structure Prediction
- Meta's AI research team generated structures for 617 million proteins
- Builds on previous work from Google's AlphaFold project
- Friedberg explains implications for drug discovery and other applications
- Discussion of mining metagenomes for novel proteins with commercial applications
The episode ended with reflections on how computational advances are enabling rapid scientific progress, particularly in biology and drug discovery.