How to build a DOA product: Humane AI Pin founders banned internal criticism

I just learned today that one of the &quot;core values&quot; at ASML is that you should &quot;challenge&quot; things.<p>This makes for a nice comparison.

That&#x27;s a whole category that should have been an app.<p>Little throwback. In 2015, I built an audio-augmented reality running game using Bluetooth beacons. It worked better as an app.

That headline almost made me spill my coffee.<p>But in all seriousness, it’s amazing that something like this still happens today. And I can only imagine massive amounts of hubris from the founder‘s side is to blame.<p>Around launch I wondered if they seriously believed what they promised and if anybody there ever tried it themselves.<p>Turns out they didn’t, actually.

I kind of suspect that the techno-optimism that plagues the AI sector has metastasised into a more general toxic optimism. This is not the first AI-ish product which was clearly unsuitable for release, yet released anyway.

Part of my (and everyone&#x27;s) job is to engage in constructive criticism. Companies that discourage this are to be completely avoided as an employee, customer, or investor.