Brian O'Connor

Remember Muse Spark? You know, that model that was “actually pretty good at UI.” Haven’t heard from bro in a while. Just doing a wellness check.

@zehf Thank you for saying this. Lots of people use it in parts of their workflow but no one has the whole game covered

I still don't get how to design with AI

@Polymarket x.com/brioooc/status… My vote is still compute

JUST IN: Coinbase announces AI agents can now pay for services on AWS with USDC through x402.

@pie6k Overall yes, but I’ve gotten too many messages from free users asking for technical support agree with point 1

Do not offer free tier. It’s better to have 10x smaller conversion but to have real customers: - if something doesn’t work - paid users will write you angry emails with feedback. Free users will just leave and you’ll learn nothing - if you have 20 free users you don’t really know if you have 1 real customer - you need to wisely manage your dopamine and having first real $ is a big boost - it’s always easier and less stressful to lower the price later than to make it higher or to force existing customers to pay - it your idea doesn’t work at all you’ll learn about it sooner

@tryramp Always found this expression quite speciesist

does a dog eat its own dog food

@infi1trate @patricksamy Sick site

@patricksamy Are you open to NYC based designers? brandon.wtf

I’m hiring a Founding Designer to build the future of preventive health at Hale. We're a small, low ego, high ambition team, building a company where smart generalists do the most important work of their careers and have fun doing it.

@bindra_dhruv Someone took the lazy route to increasing DAU

Bruh which PM thought it’s a good idea to have these emails

@privetavdey Smooth

Can't decide if this is smart or not

The “AI killing design” thesis is being pushed by people who don’t really know what design is

@brian_armstrong If you needed a sign that it’s time for self-custody…here it is

This is an email I sent earlier today to all employees at Coinbase: Team, Today I’ve made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%. I want to walk you through why we're doing this now, what it means for those affected, and how this positions us for the future. Why now Two forces are converging at the same time. We need to be front footed to respond to both. First, the market. Coinbase is well-capitalized, has diversified revenue streams, and is well-positioned to weather any storm. Crypto is also on the verge of the next wave of adoption, with stablecoins, prediction markets, tokenization, and more taking off. However, our business is still volatile from quarter to quarter. While we've managed through that cyclicality many times before and come out stronger on the other side, we’re currently in a down market and need to adjust our cost structure now so that we emerge from this period leaner, faster, and more efficient for our next phase of growth. Second, AI is changing how we work. Over the past year, I’ve watched engineers use AI to ship in days what used to take a team weeks. Non-technical teams are now shipping production code and many of our workflows are being automated. The pace of what's possible with a small, focused team has changed dramatically, and it's accelerating every day. All of this has led us to an inflection point, not just for Coinbase, but for every company. The biggest risk now is not taking action. We are adjusting early and deliberately to rebuild Coinbase to be lean, fast, and AI-native. We need to return to the speed and focus of our startup founding, with AI at our core. What this means To get there, we are not just reducing headcount and cutting costs, we’re fundamentally changing how we operate: rebuilding Coinbase as an intelligence, with humans around the edge aligning it. What does this mean in practice? - Fewer layers, faster decisions: We are flattening our org structure to 5 layers max below CEO/COO. Layers slow things down and create coordination tax. The future is small, high context teams that can move quickly. Leaders will own much more, with as many as 15+ direct reports. Fewer layers also means a leaner cost structure that is built to perform through all market cycles. - No pure managers: Every leader at Coinbase must also be a strong and active individual contributor. Managers should be like player-coaches, getting their hands dirty alongside their teams. - AI-native pods: We’ll be concentrating around AI-native talent who can manage fleets of agents to drive outsized impact. We’ll also be experimenting with reduced pod sizes, including “one person teams” with engineers, designers, and product managers all in one role. In short: AI is bringing a profound shift in how companies operate, and we’re reshaping Coinbase to lead in this new era. This is a new way of working, and we need to leverage AI across every facet of our jobs. To those who are affected I know there are real people behind these decisions — talented colleagues who have poured themselves into this company and our mission. To those of you who will be leaving: thank you. You’ve helped build Coinbase into what it is today, and I am sincerely grateful for everything you've done. All impacted team members will receive an email to their personal account in the next hour with more information, and an invitation to meet with an HRBP and a senior leader in your organization. Coinbase system access has been removed today. I know this feels sudden and harsh, but it is the only responsible choice given our duty to protect customer information. To those affected, we will be providing a comprehensive package to support you through this transition. US employees will receive a minimum of 16 weeks base pay (plus 2 weeks per year worked), their next equity vest, and 6 months of COBRA. Employees on a work visa will get extra transition support. Those outside of the US will receive similar support, based on local factors and subject to any consultation requirements. Coinbase prides itself on talent density. Our employees are among the most talented people in the world, and I have no doubt that your skills and experience will be highly sought after as you pursue your next chapters. How we move forward To the team that is staying, I know this is a difficult day. We’re saying goodbye to colleagues and friends you've been in the trenches with. But here’s what I want you to know as we move forward together: Over the past 13 years, we have weathered four crypto winters, gone public, and built the most trusted platform in our industry. We’ve made it this far by making hard decisions and by always staying focused on our mission. This time will be no different – nothing has changed about the long term outlook of our company or industry. And most importantly, our mission has never been more important for the world. Increasing economic freedom requires a new financial system, and we’re building it. The Coinbase that emerges from this will be more capable than ever to achieve our mission. Brian

Designer's "invisible jobs" are: 1. Listen through all "ideas" in unstructured way (or poorly structured, like "read my AI summary"); 2. Research the real importance vs perceived; multiplied by conviction. 3. Prioritize; 4. Imagine decisions in product to check if the ranking and priority is working correctly; 5. Optimize based on subjective evaluation and unstructured feedback. There's a high demand for design. I would say "higher than ever been", but it's disguised under other roles and not clearly articulated. People call it "high agency", while looking for someone to bring them clear decisions framework, because they are tired of "abundance of 10 half-cooked ambivalent directions", instead of "1 done well and completely". It's cheap to generate 11th direction and it's getting more expensive than ever, to complete one. And of course demand grows if idea generation grows 100x. It does make more available designers busier. Complexity explodes > supply is scared away by harder complexity > demand sky-rocketed.

@WSJ @WSJopinion @andreaejavor I hate how this article is right

From @WSJopinion: Corporate jargon saved my self-esteem. “Let’s sunset the initiative,” my boss told me. That was a lot easier to stomach than “You failed miserably,” writes @andreaejavor. on.wsj.com/4nlU8AF

@OpenAIDevs Why are you infantilizing us? I want AGI not a FigPals ripoff

Pets. Now in Codex. Use /pet to wake your pet.

I’m sorry been a bit too busy doing *real work* so I haven’t had time to optimize my portfolio to show how I’ve been “experimenting” with AI And I doubt the ones who have are the people you need on your team

@jvin33 @kushagrasinha7 I’ve always owned anywhere between 50-70% of the “product strategy” as a designer depending on the project.

@kushagrasinha7 designer have never exclusively owned "deciding what to build, why and for whom". that's always been shared with pm and eng too. what they did own completely is UI/UX. you're actually just agreeing with him that the old design role is gone.

Ah yes, the famously easy part of design: deciding what to build, why, and for whom. Good thing AI can handle all that so that humans can focus on the truly hard problem of picking button colors once a year.

@JackDan66096166 @oliverbrocato Yeah more accurate

@brioooc @oliverbrocato The don’t revert to B. They get pushed out by the Bs, Cs and specially Ds.

The B+ employee pandemic is real. Always "on it." Calendar blocked. Slack green. Never misses a deadline. Company still not moving. Bc they're all professional seat warmers. No edge. No urgency. Never fixing any gaps. They won't push back on anything. Just smile, execute, cash checks. Founders love them because they're "low maintenance." But what they actually are is low impact. U can have an entire team of B+ employees and wake up a year later in the exact same spot. Congrats, you’ve officially normalized mediocrity.