Not a cost-cutting story
Jack Dorsey wants you to know that Block firing 40% of its workforce in February was not a cost cut. It was a paradigm shift.
The distinction matters because cost cuts make investors feel slightly ๐๐ป๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐, while paradigm shifts make them feel ๐๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐ฎ๐ฟ๐, and Block's stock rose 24% the day of the announcement.
On March 31st, Dorsey and Sequoia's Roelof Botha delivered the paradigm: ๐ฏ,๐ฑ๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฑ๐ spanning Roman centurions, the Prussian General Staff, and Frederick Taylor, concluding that AI makes middle management structurally obsolete.
๐ฏ.๐ฒ ๐บ๐ถ๐น๐น๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐๐ถ๐ฒ๐๐. The layoffs had happened five weeks earlier.
To be fair, parts of the argument are real. Managers spending their days in alignment sessions are routing information that software can move faster. That doesn't make the argument wrong. It makes it ๐๐ผ๐บ๐ฒ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ผ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐ถ๐ ๐ฐ๐น๐ฎ๐ถ๐บ๐ ๐๐ผ ๐ฏ๐ฒ.
Every company that reads this and restructures accordingly needs exactly the AI infrastructure Sequoia funds. ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฒ๐๐๐ฎ๐ ๐ถ๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฝ๐ถ๐๐ฐ๐ต ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ธ. The paradigm shift is ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐๐ฎ๐ฏ๐น๐ฒ ๐บ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ธ๐ฒ๐.
Block announced ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ต ๐ผ๐ณ ๐บ๐ถ๐ฑ๐ฑ๐น๐ฒ ๐บ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ๐ด๐ฒ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐ and replaced it with a role called the Player-Coach, whose job is people's growth, craft, and the human stuff
That is a manager. Same functions, same conversations, same Tuesday afternoon explaining why the roadmap changed again.
Block eliminated management by giving it a ๐๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฟ๐๐ ๐บ๐ฒ๐๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ต๐ผ๐ฟ and removing its budget authority. Roughly equivalent to a hospital announcing it now employs Procedure-Coaches.
Same role. Same instruments. ๐ฆ๐น๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐๐น๐ ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐๐ฒ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ธ๐ถ๐ป๐ด.
The "world model" powering all of this also requires two specific conditions: a remote-first company where everything creates machine-readable artifacts, plus both sides of millions of daily financial transactions. ๐๐น๐ผ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐ฏ๐ผ๐๐ต. ๐ ๐ผ๐๐ ๐ฑ๐ผ๐ป'๐.
The essay presents this as a universal playbook. It is closer to a specific autobiography.
Information routing, AI can genuinely handle. The ๐ผ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ณ๐๐ป๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐ผ๐ณ ๐บ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ๐ด๐ฒ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐ป๐ผ ๐ป๐ฎ๐บ๐ฒ ๐ถ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฒ๐๐๐ฎ๐, presumably because it generates no artifacts: who owns what, psychological safety, the cold war between two engineers, the most experienced person quietly interviewing elsewhere.
The world model can see that a team is missing deadlines. It cannot see why.
Block's essay celebrates "the feeling in a room" as something humans uniquely provide, then builds an architecture that eliminates the people most responsible for reading it.
๐ฐ,๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฝ๐น๐ฒ ๐น๐ผ๐๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฟ ๐ท๐ผ๐ฏ๐. Stock went up 24%. The framework arrived five weeks after the restructuring it explains.
Frederick Taylor spent 26 years measuring pig-iron loading before he published. He had a word for organizations that theorized after they acted.
He would not have used "paradigm shift."