koji

This is a super long but fun read from a reporter who got to spend 100 hours "undercover" at Moonshot AI / Kimi. The company had a rough beginning (it is actually a spinoff, and managed to piss off one of the most influential VCs in China, fueling a very public spat) but has now really found its footing. A few things from the piece that I found very entertaining: - The company only has 300ish people, mostly under the age of 30 - There are technically no job titles, departments, KPIs or OKRs, or clock-ins and outs (very common in China). There are still obviously job responsibilities but basically, they believe that people have to be generalists and can't be overly specialized / responsibilities cannot be subdivided too much, especially in engineering - One hilarious anecdote had an ex-Silicon Valley / China Big Tech exec joining thinking he'd land in the middle of the AI wave and run a department of hundreds. Turns out he's managing no more than 2 people - One exec who was hired and left decided to exit the tech industry entirely because they were intimidated by how fast the industry is changing and decided they were just better off "laying flat" - And oh yeah, all of the meeting rooms are named after bands. Western bands. Actually the Chinese name of Moonshot is "Dark Side of the Moon." - The reporter claims that 80% of the firm are "I" people, meaning "introverted," and quite a few he talked to enjoy working with AI more than real people. I don't know though, I'm definitely an Extrovert, but I also love being productive and AI is definitely that?? ;) Kimi meeting room names below: