see ya later snapchat
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^ Pictured above: Billionaire Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel went to Coachella with his supermodel wife, and then two days later laid off over 1,000 employees. I was one of them. So was my entire team of about 40 people.
We were the Bitmoji team at Snapchat, and except for a few people in LA, our team was completely eliminated. Acquired by Snapchat, Bitmoji remained, at least in spirit, a somewhat semi-autonomous republic within the larger company. But eventually the Bitmoji founders departed or were ousted, along with some long-time artists, and the corporate tech tentacles slowly creeped in to smother what was once a quirky creative team. I joined part way through the process, so I got to taste that fun/creative culture, but also witness its decline.
Honestly, we were all there by accident - artists, animators, and illustrators hiding in the corner of a Tech Company, quietly shocked at the generous salaries and benefits (and free lunches) we received, a contrast to the poor-paying studios and freelance illustration gigs that had come before.
The 5 years I spent there were amazing and horrible. Amazing because (1) Big Tech Salary, and (2) I got to work with some of the most fun, creative and intelligent people. No dead wood on this team. It was also horrible, because ultimately I was just making digital crap to keep users' eyes glued to an app and its advertisers. The pressure to perform and scale production was really high. I lost sleep and gained weight, and got to suffer from anxiety for the first time.
And now suddenly it's done. We're all out. Ostensibly "because AI", despite the fact that we barely used any AI in our creative pipelines, and only for non-creative tasks. I didn't lose my job because of AI, I lost it because of the *idea* that AI could do it all. And of course because Snap's stagnating stock price needed a boost.
It's honestly a relief. I've spent the last month relaxing and decompressing; I had accumulated a month's worth of unused vacation anyway. I'll eventually try to figure out what's next, but for now I have a generous severance to give me some breathing room. I'm free now, as are my fellow artists. I'm happy they can go use their creative gifts for things that are hopefully more meaningful to our society and culture.
thanks for reading my brain dump mltshp friends. That concludes my ted talk.
We were the Bitmoji team at Snapchat, and except for a few people in LA, our team was completely eliminated. Acquired by Snapchat, Bitmoji remained, at least in spirit, a somewhat semi-autonomous republic within the larger company. But eventually the Bitmoji founders departed or were ousted, along with some long-time artists, and the corporate tech tentacles slowly creeped in to smother what was once a quirky creative team. I joined part way through the process, so I got to taste that fun/creative culture, but also witness its decline.
Honestly, we were all there by accident - artists, animators, and illustrators hiding in the corner of a Tech Company, quietly shocked at the generous salaries and benefits (and free lunches) we received, a contrast to the poor-paying studios and freelance illustration gigs that had come before.
The 5 years I spent there were amazing and horrible. Amazing because (1) Big Tech Salary, and (2) I got to work with some of the most fun, creative and intelligent people. No dead wood on this team. It was also horrible, because ultimately I was just making digital crap to keep users' eyes glued to an app and its advertisers. The pressure to perform and scale production was really high. I lost sleep and gained weight, and got to suffer from anxiety for the first time.
And now suddenly it's done. We're all out. Ostensibly "because AI", despite the fact that we barely used any AI in our creative pipelines, and only for non-creative tasks. I didn't lose my job because of AI, I lost it because of the *idea* that AI could do it all. And of course because Snap's stagnating stock price needed a boost.
It's honestly a relief. I've spent the last month relaxing and decompressing; I had accumulated a month's worth of unused vacation anyway. I'll eventually try to figure out what's next, but for now I have a generous severance to give me some breathing room. I'm free now, as are my fellow artists. I'm happy they can go use their creative gifts for things that are hopefully more meaningful to our society and culture.
thanks for reading my brain dump mltshp friends. That concludes my ted talk.
Hopefully the break is refreshing and fulfilling and leads quickly and easily into the next project which is hopefully more fun and fulfilling than the last! Lachaim!
FWIW I'm certain AI will eat itself.