3 ms·

Maybe I'm not the intended audience, maybe I'm not from a culture that understands posts like this, but this all seems so hollow and tone-deaf. If I didn't oth

Maybe I'm not the intended audience, maybe I'm not from a culture that understands posts like this, but this all seems so hollow and tone-deaf. If I didn't otherwise know about the lay-offs it would to me paint an entirely misleading picture, it only hints at redundancies with euphemisms: > need to realign our operations > a need to refocus our priorities > The resulting restructuring And that's it, no other mention, not even an oblique one. And yet the article is full of things like: > SiFive today is in tremendous shape > SiFive’s growth has never been stronger It just comes across as complete bullshit? There's no sense of communicating difficulties, or any sense of humility. Just a lot of "Hoo hah aren't we amazing!".

hashtag-til 3y ago
Maybe it was generated using some LLM? :) What would be the prompt?
alias_neo 3y ago
My impression, having seen many of these over the years, is that they are just that; hollow, tone-deaf, bullshit. They're basically quotable material for the media. I don't think any ordinary person actually reads these and takes them sincerely; at least I hope not.
broodbucket 3y ago
Yeah I don't understand who the target audience is for this. Who would read this and be reassured the company is in tremendous shape? It seems way too far removed from reality
- vegabook 3y ago
  probably their VCs.
  - Symmetry 3y ago
    No way a VC is going to be satisfied by something like this. And they're getting to look at the actual budget in any event, no need for vague platitudes about being funded. I'd suppose its for the remaining employees who need reassurance but don't get to see the numbers.
flanked-evergl 3y ago
> Maybe I'm not the intended audience, maybe I'm not from a culture that understands posts like this, but this all seems so hollow and tone-deaf. This is written for other c-suite level people and board members, and sadly this hollow pointless communication is the norm for the c-suite and board members. They are not smart people, they don't use language to communicate important information, they don't make choices based on what is best for shareholders, employees, customers or society, they have no useful skill or insight. They are worse than politicians, they hurt shareholders, customers, employees and society. The only people they help are the politically connected Ivy League class, and they are a blight on society.
RetroTechie 3y ago
> There's no sense of communicating difficulties, or any sense of humility. If there's any difficulties, that would be financial, no? Does SiFive publish any financial reports? And if so, do those show the company is in financial trouble? Are there well-informed insiders claiming so? Unless that, I'll take the company CEO's word for it. Who writes: "We are very well funded for years to come, with engaged, highly supportive investors, and we are realizing revenues and compounding royalties from many of the world’s leading semiconductor companies." There. So if no money trouble, then what? RISC-V ecosystem growth slowing down? No. SiFive's customers shopping elsewhere? Seems unlikely. Portfolio growing stale/uncompetitive? Hardly. Revenues not (yet?) matching expenses? Who knows. It's a young company still, in a rapidly evolving market. More likely imho: SiFive transitioning from seed stage -> investment rounds & rapid growth -> some kind of 'maintenance mode'. They have an IP portfolio now. So developing that is done. And decided to re-adjust the size of their workforce to better fit what's needed near-future. Leaving 'just' 100s of highly skilled people to work on SiFive's next products. All in all, looks more like a storm in a glass of water to me. It's sad for the people who were laid off, but they'll have good opportunities elsewhere.
- klelatti 3y ago
  > RISC-V ecosystem growth slowing down? No. Or (their business) not growing as rapidly as they planned or expected and so they have fallen short on their own financial projections and need to adjust. Need to be careful not to conflate SiFive with RISC-V (despite the best efforts of this blog post to do so). They have made their own decisions as to where to compete and that may or may not be the right strategy. SiFive's success or otherwise has implications for RISC-V but RISC-V being a success doesn't imply SiFive will be.
- sifar 3y ago
  >> They have an IP portfolio now. So developing that is done. Perhaps if you knew semiconductor IP business, you would not say this. It is never done. Stop creating or improving new IPs, and you'll become irrelevant.

hashtag-til 3y ago

Maybe it was generated using some LLM? :) What would be the prompt?

alias_neo 3y ago

My impression, having seen many of these over the years, is that they are just that; hollow, tone-deaf, bullshit. They're basically quotable material for the media. I don't think any ordinary person actually reads these and takes them sincerely; at least I hope not.

broodbucket 3y ago

Yeah I don't understand who the target audience is for this. Who would read this and be reassured the company is in tremendous shape? It seems way too far removed from reality

vegabook 3y ago
probably their VCs.
- Symmetry 3y ago
  No way a VC is going to be satisfied by something like this. And they're getting to look at the actual budget in any event, no need for vague platitudes about being funded. I'd suppose its for the remaining employees who need reassurance but don't get to see the numbers.

flanked-evergl 3y ago

> Maybe I'm not the intended audience, maybe I'm not from a culture that understands posts like this, but this all seems so hollow and tone-deaf. This is written for other c-suite level people and board members, and sadly this hollow pointless communication is the norm for the c-suite and board members. They are not smart people, they don't use language to communicate important information, they don't make choices based on what is best for shareholders, employees, customers or society, they have no useful skill or insight. They are worse than politicians, they hurt shareholders, customers, employees and society. The only people they help are the politically connected Ivy League class, and they are a blight on society.

RetroTechie 3y ago

> There's no sense of communicating difficulties, or any sense of humility. If there's any difficulties, that would be financial, no? Does SiFive publish any financial reports? And if so, do those show the company is in financial trouble? Are there well-informed insiders claiming so? Unless that, I'll take the company CEO's word for it. Who writes: "We are very well funded for years to come, with engaged, highly supportive investors, and we are realizing revenues and compounding royalties from many of the world’s leading semiconductor companies." There. So if no money trouble, then what? RISC-V ecosystem growth slowing down? No. SiFive's customers shopping elsewhere? Seems unlikely. Portfolio growing stale/uncompetitive? Hardly. Revenues not (yet?) matching expenses? Who knows. It's a young company still, in a rapidly evolving market. More likely imho: SiFive transitioning from seed stage -> investment rounds & rapid growth -> some kind of 'maintenance mode'. They have an IP portfolio now. So developing that is done. And decided to re-adjust the size of their workforce to better fit what's needed near-future. Leaving 'just' 100s of highly skilled people to work on SiFive's next products. All in all, looks more like a storm in a glass of water to me. It's sad for the people who were laid off, but they'll have good opportunities elsewhere.

klelatti 3y ago
> RISC-V ecosystem growth slowing down? No. Or (their business) not growing as rapidly as they planned or expected and so they have fallen short on their own financial projections and need to adjust. Need to be careful not to conflate SiFive with RISC-V (despite the best efforts of this blog post to do so). They have made their own decisions as to where to compete and that may or may not be the right strategy. SiFive's success or otherwise has implications for RISC-V but RISC-V being a success doesn't imply SiFive will be.
sifar 3y ago
>> They have an IP portfolio now. So developing that is done. Perhaps if you knew semiconductor IP business, you would not say this. It is never done. Stop creating or improving new IPs, and you'll become irrelevant.