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wake up babe, new animation library from airbnb just dropped

https://x.com/joshuapekera/status/1922501811262435359?t=Ybic_19aiF1f6c9Pz4wmXw&s=19

This is cool and all but seems like a misallocation of resources?

I don't know how to connect Airbnb's core business with building a new media format for icons.

It's not turning the brand into the next Nike or Coca Cola.

Seems like a pattern to do frivolous design pursuits at Airbnb.

Everyone is from somewhere. Cofounder and CEO of Pinata. https://www.pinata.cloud/

🕯️They/them. Scaled cos from 0-$300k in arr, 7-35 employees, 0-100k users. Now I make candles that give people love, joy, and delight at humankind.place

why do you think it was misallocation of resources? an employee wants to dedicate some hours to something they are passionate about and it could be useful for the company

I think that reflects well on airbnb

“Sure, go invent a new video player format for some little animations” really just happens at Airbnb. They keep raising the bar for craft and I love that.

We just made it happen to be honest. Our entire Media team and program was born the same way. We saw around a corner and said "we will need this". @ramon_fritsch hacked on it in the late hours and juggled other tasks. It was a grass roots effort just like Lottie was in 2016.

Joshua Pekera

React Native Developer. Experimenting with consumer apps.

How is this related to the customer?

It's cool, fun, and they have incredible employees to do it, but like I said, it's difficult for me to tie back to the core business.

As an Airbnb customer, this doesn't help me in any meaningful way.

why do you think it was misallocation of resources? an employee wants to dedicate some hours to something they are passionate about and it could be useful for the company

I think that reflects well on airbnb

https://x.com/joshuapekera/status/1922441552250462629?t=WyJqqo8Ws9FwHzTAxIvrHg&s=19

airbnb well known as a design-led company. building culture by letting designers play seems like it has positive externalities in excess of the "misallocation of resources" costs

Retention tactic. But feels like a ZIRP phenomenon that’s hanging around.

Unless it’s going to involve LiDAR and creating animated icons of geospatial nature like virtual rooms, objects, and so on typically known for traditionally heavy front end data to generate from, I’m not sure where this will go in their business model.

Padding IP to up their valuation in case they need to sell out before hard times?