From what I’ve heard, the shell of Windsurf was purchased for their certifications. So all the staff except a single digit few (the ones who do the compliance certification work) will probably be laid off in the not-too-distant future, regardless of whether they take the buyout.
So everyone should take the it, rather than get worked to death and then unceremoniously RIF’d in a months.
Open source really has shown how you do not need so much cruft/guilt-tripping to build on top of good models.
How sad is it to over work folks & be proud of it, sure if Cognition equity is going to the trash just as Windsurf's lol, the irony of all this grind.
Is the logic that working with AI will need grind, waiting for the burnout blogs to show up here in some time.
If you really want to develop on the cutting edge, you need a lot more than smarts. You have to have that dog in you. That fire in your belly that makes you obsessed, consumed with your work and solving the problems you set out to solve. If you don't... you're gonna lose out to someone who does. Go sling Java for a bank or insurance company, then, if you want to punch out at 5.
Scott Wu has that dog in him. It's reasonable for him to expect the same of his employees.
Passion is a different thing and I agree you need passion you be the best. While there is clearly a correlation between people with passion and people willing to work more, it don't see why someone can't be passionate and also have other interests or responsibilities outside of work.
Get real.
schwentkerr•2h ago
Windsurf Paradox: When Acquisition Looks Like Extraction
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/windsurf-paradox-when-acquisi...