Band Protocol (BAND) Plunge

BTC brews a historic bottom and pays attention to shock opportunities.

Notion CEO Ivan Zhao, in a recent podcast, shared his journey of twice rebuilding the company from near-collapse and now applying the same "Refounder" mindset to reshape the 1000-person organization in the AI era. He argues that AI has commoditized technical capability (Capability). True talent now hinges on Taste (judgment/values) and Agency (proactive drive), necessitating a shift in hiring—e.g., hiring more juniors for curiosity and having sales candidates demonstrate work upfront. Zhao envisions the company as a "Jazz Band"—agile and improvisational—versus a rigid "Marching Band." This is reflected in an engineering "dumbbell" structure (super juniors + top-tier seniors, with middle layers compressed), dissolving the CMO role to let teams operate directly, and integrating entrepreneurs via acquisitions to lead their expertise areas. Notion has abandoned traditional long-term product roadmaps, planning only conservatively for finances while adopting a week-by-week, improvisational approach to product strategy, as longer plans proved futile during rapid AI shifts. He concludes that while human nature and roles remain constants, companies must rewrite their approaches to hiring (valuing Taste/Agency over Capability), organizational design (reducing roles focused on coordination/execution), and planning (embracing flexibility). Modern knowledge work, being only ~150 years old, is ripe for reinvention.

"Orange Pill Jam: A Bitcoin Band's Survival in the Bear Market" Orange Pill Jam is a musical group exploring themes of financial sovereignty and privacy, born from the Bitcoin community. Formed after singer Mermaid performed her song "Dollar Apocalypse" at a 2022 conference, the band creates music intended for both Bitcoin enthusiasts and general audiences. Their creative process involves Mermaid writing lyrics and melodies, which producer/multi-instrumentalist Michi then shapes with a precise, rhythm-focused approach, often demanding numerous retakes to achieve his unique standard of timing. Their songs, like "Cypherpunks' Manifesto" and "Fire of Freedom," tackle concepts of digital privacy, the pitfalls of "free" services, and personal sovereignty, influenced by experiences in places like El Salvador. Despite operating in a crypto bear market with a Copyleft model (offering music for free sharing/remixing and accepting optional Bitcoin donations), they face practical challenges. Their growth is slow on platforms like YouTube and Spotify, which aren't optimized for their niche content. The band also navigates the rise of AI-generated music. While acknowledging AI's efficiency for certain tasks, they believe human creativity occupies a unique space that algorithms cannot replicate—the ability to create new genres and capture intangible rhythmic feeling. For Orange Pill Jam, the core argument for both Bitcoin in a downturn and human artistry in the AI age lies in this irreplaceable, intentional, and imperfectly human creative process. Their project persists as an anti-algorithm experiment, valuing the unquantifiable impact of music over scalable metrics.