How to build a DOA product: Humane AI Pin founders banned internal criticism

  • I just learned today that one of the "core values" at ASML is that you should "challenge" things.

    This makes for a nice comparison.

  • That's a whole category that should have been an app.

    Little throwback. In 2015, I built an audio-augmented reality running game using Bluetooth beacons. It worked better as an app.

  • That headline almost made me spill my coffee.

    But in all seriousness, it’s amazing that something like this still happens today. And I can only imagine massive amounts of hubris from the founder‘s side is to blame.

    Around launch I wondered if they seriously believed what they promised and if anybody there ever tried it themselves.

    Turns out they didn’t, actually.

  • I kind of suspect that the techno-optimism that plagues the AI sector has metastasised into a more general toxic optimism. This is not the first AI-ish product which was clearly unsuitable for release, yet released anyway.

  • Part of my (and everyone's) job is to engage in constructive criticism. Companies that discourage this are to be completely avoided as an employee, customer, or investor.