> "The tech industry layoffs are basically an instance of social contagion, in which companies imitate what others are doing." I think this social contagion c

> "The tech industry layoffs are basically an instance of social contagion, in which companies imitate what others are doing." I think this social contagion can describe a lot of the moves that have been made in the tech industry over the last few years. Some examples: * "Embracing remote work" - prior to 2020 the prospect of working hybrid, let alone fully remote, was extremely rare in tech. Mid-pandemic a couple of large tech companies announce that remote work is here to stay, and pro-WFH policies spread like wildfire. This is a positive example IMO, but still seems like big tech gave this trend the kick to get going. * The pandemic hiring spree - this one feels the dumbest IMO. As expected from being stuck at home, FAANG in general saw an increase in usage and therefore an increase in revenue. Either leadership made some willfully ignorant revenue projections, or maybe it was just a land grab, but a couple of the big players started aggressively hiring, and all of a sudden the market for tech employees was at an all time high. Less stable companies assumed the bigger players knew something they didn't, and a lot of them followed suit only to get burned by the current bear market we're in. And now the mass job cuts. So many tech pundits are heralding these waves of layoffs as FAANG forecasting darker days ahead. "If companies with troves of consumer data like Meta and Google are trimming the fat, they must know something we don't!" _Maybe_ big tech is right this time around, but it doesn't seem like they have the greatest track record. At what point are we going to stop assuming these companies are omnipotent, and realize the man behind the curtain is just some mid-level data analyst with a penchant for SQL queries.