Matt MacInnis

This is a window into the future of software companies: - massively multi-vertical products operating on shared infra and data model - agents running over the top to abstract away complexity for users that don't want it, or direct those who do to a deeper workflow - ultimately, the number of SaaS vendors a given enterprise works with falling from ~350 today to many fewer in the future

@sfchronicle Yes, duh. Billionaires are generally intelligent people, and this candidate is superior to literally every other option, by miles.

More than two-thirds of the billionaires who’ve donated to a candidate in the California governor’s race put their money behind one person. sfchronicle.com/politics/artic…

Rippling is going to be one of the main companies where AI meets organizations. They're still young enough to embrace AI thoroughly, but they're also big enough that they touch organizations in many places.

omg even VCs can use it lololololololollll 😂

like, seriously, it's Star Trek made real

I have been using our AI in almost every meeting, every day, and I can't imagine not having it.

It's crazy to me that this obvious truth cannot be said out loud by the vast majority of candidates, because they're afraid of pissing off the government employee unions. It's just insane. It's fucking us so hard.

We have to elect this guy governor of California.

There's a lot of room between anti-woke and unhinged hatred. If you'd like an example of the latter, see @oliviakrolczyk_, who has a crucifix emoji in her X handle. This kid can be whoever he wants to be, and I hope he is loved.

California's rainy day fund is half-empty, and it hasn't rained yet. Four straight years of deficits, during an economic expansion. $125 billion in cumulative shortfalls (!) The structural gap is $20+ billion a year and growing. The next governor will inherit a fiscal mess. So I did something I never thought I'd do: I hosted a political fundraiser at my house with @veratz. That sentence is as weird to write as it is to read. I build tech products. I've never knocked on a door for a candidate. My political involvement up to this point is complaining to friends about politicians and reporting potholes to 311. But I grew up in Santa Cruz. I've lived in California almost my entire life. I love this state in a way I can't fully articulate. Most places I visit feel boring by comparison. My default mode of transportation is self-driving car. And California is heading down a dark path. So when @garrytan told me about @mattmahanhq, Mayor of San Jose, I looked him up. He grew up in Watsonville, same county as me. Working class. His mom was a teacher, and his dad delivered mail. Hustled to get a scholarship to a better high school, which meant four hours on a bus every day. Made it to Harvard on financial aid. Became student body president. Lived down the hall from Zuck. After college, he became a schoolteacher. Then founded a company. Then became mayor of the biggest city in Northern California. What caught my attention was his scoreboard. San Jose is now ranked the safest large city in America according to FBI data. Their homicide clearance rate has been 100% four years running. He reduced homelessness by 30%. He cut the development fees that were making housing construction financially impossible and got thousands of units in the ground. He proposed tying pay raises for politicians and department heads to measurable results. Homelessness goes up, your raise doesn't happen. He balanced the city budget by going through it line by line and making actual choices. No tricks, no pulling from reserves. While Sacramento was spending through $125 billion in deficits during a boom. I invited him to our house. ~50 people showed up. He spent the evening in the operational weeds. Permitting timelines. Fee structures. Shelter conversion rates. The stuff that actually determines whether things get built or people get housed. I've sat in rooms with some of the best operators in tech, and he reminded me of the ones I trust most. The ones who talk about the problem, not about themselves. I have a one-year-old daughter. I think about what California looks like when she's 30. We spend $228 billion a year as a state. I don't think anyone in charge can tell you where it all goes. We have every natural advantage a place could ask for, and we're still running a deficit that gets worse every year. I don't know how the governor's race shakes out. But I hadn't met anyone running for anything who made me think, okay, this person actually knows how to do the job. Now I have.

@SFist I think this will make him quite popular with plenty of people.

Daniel Lurie says that at least 500 City Hall jobs are on the chopping block, a move he avoided last year through accounting tricks, and Lurie may not exactly be Mr. Popular anymore once that axe comes down. buff.ly/NJf1EE5

Unequivocally good

@typesfast Do Workday next

The risk-reward ratio on candles is so bad. Upsides: Pleasant mood lighting that potentially smells nice. Downsides: Breathing in carbon monoxide, potentially losing your house and maybe dying a fiery death.

“We demand that the government do better before we ask you for more money” @MattMahanSJ with @RickCarusoLA Vote. We need a great governor like Matt to run our great state of CA. The PRIMARY matters #Vote

If you're at a tech company whose CEO is a sales-type and not a product- or engineering-type, you should bail.

@moranr More data centers are going to be built in the next 10 years than all shopping malls, data centers, and warehouses in the past 100. Be a welder, carpenter, electrician, plumber, or roofer, and you're going to do great. (Do not be a software engineer.)

@stanine What’s a good career path for an 18 year old with average intelligence?

PMs are gonna do it ALL, you guys

This is Episode 2 of Executive Function with Ryan Lucas, VP of Design at Rippling and former Head of Design at Retool. For Ryan, everything begins with being very clear about what the job of design and a design function really is. In his words, “Useful, usable and desirable are the three things we need to deliver. And I think people often forget about the last bit, but it’s incredibly important to the practice of professional design, whether it’s physical products or software products. Henry Dreyfuss said the designer’s job is not done if the product doesn’t sell, and I’ve always believed that.” We go on to discuss: - Design leaders who "shield" their teams from organizational chaos are doing them a disservice, not a favor. - To truly scale quality, you probably need a benevolent dictator, one opinionated person who sets the bar. - Parker Conrad goes directly to the individual designer when he sees a problem, skipping Ryan entirely, and Ryan thinks that's great. - At Rippling, individual designers sometimes own a Series C company's worth of product by themselves. - Great creative work cannot come from fear because fight-or-flight shuts down the prefrontal cortex, which is where all creative thinking lives. - In the absence of a date, there is no commitment, and that rigor around commitments is what makes Rippling's speed possible. - One-on-ones should be jam sessions on hard problems, not status updates or career development chats. - He'd rather a young designer have opinions he completely disagrees with than no opinions at all. - The hardest skill in the job is knowing which balls are rubber and which are glass, and you only learn by letting some drop. - The most successful use of a design crit is when designers tell you upfront what feedback they actually need, otherwise everyone wastes time on things that have already been decided. - The perfectionism that makes someone a great designer is the same trait that will prevent them from becoming a great design leader. - The best designers steer the business, they see a problem, come out of their lane, and move the tiller without being asked. Timestamps: 03:29 The Useful, usable, desirable — and used — design framework 04:49 How design relates to engineering, product, and marketing 08:15 Measuring success as a design leader 12:40 The gap between director and VP-level design leadership 14:23 Why great design leaders jump up and down in altitude 19:26 The four pillars every design manager must master 21:34 Over-indexing on quality and the perfectionist trap 27:53 How to build judgment through pattern matching 34:31 Why Figma is not the source of truth 38:39 The "Do/Try/Consider" framework 44:05 Should one-on-ones exist? 46:45 How to scale judgment 50:49 What to look for when hiring your first design leader 54:54 Advice for young designers who want to lead 58:24 Demanding yet supportive: A balanced management style 01:02:43 What Rippling's operating system teaches about execution

Why are SF schools closed going into a 4th day? SFUSD’s pension spending grew 538% while revenue grew 123%. A $593 billion California pension scheme is why today's teachers can’t get raises and your kids aren’t in school. garryslist.org/posts/the-593-…

@jrivanob Oh nooooo! You've be ratioed by @garrytan!! Just like in the next election.