Bending Spoons bought Miro as disruption is just a word
By Ray Dombrowski · Reporting from Youngstown ·
AI disruption is noise compared to the reality of payroll leaks and valuation crashes.
The TBPN podcast recently highlighted a stark reality: out of nearly two million people losing their jobs every month, AI claims fewer than 17,000. For someone who spent two decades watching the Mahoning Valley’s workforce vanish into a series of spreadsheets, that number is the only thing that matters. The rest—the gambles on the end of the world, the stories about "X-risk," and the dread of synthesized pathogens—is noise.
Disruption Is Not a Payroll
The speakers predict that by September 2026, AI will upend the economy and begin accelerating its own research. They said that while junior software engineers will lose their seats, the people who manage and audit AI teams will prosper.
The case for this takeover rests on tools that serve two masters. The speakers said that Anthropic recently blocked research that could create biological weapons, which proves the tool's potency. If a machine can synthesize a virus or write a codebase, the entry-level human becomes a luxury the market cannot afford.
I recognize the pattern. In the 80s, people said the robots in automotive plants signaled a final collapse. In the 90s, they pointed to fiber-optic cables and cubicle farms. People always describe the change as a sudden cliff, but the payroll actually leaks away slowly. A junior software engineer losing a job in 2027 is a tragedy for that individual, but it is not a systemic collapse until the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a trend. Until then, "disruption" is just a word people use when they cannot find a headcount.
The Valuation Crash
The conversation eventually shifted to what companies are actually worth. Bending Spoons bought Miro for $1.79 billion, a price that wipes out nearly nine-tenths of the company's previous peak value of $17.5 billion. Jordy said that Bending Spoons is pursuing a "rollup" strategy, bundling services to undercut Google's pricing. He said that companies priced at the top of the market today may see their value plummet by 90% within three years.
This part of the conversation anchors the discussion in reality. A drop of this magnitude is not a "pivot"; it is a correction. It happens when the venture capital fever breaks and an auditor compares the hype against half a billion dollars in recurring revenue. The market does not clear a county or a company without leaving a trail of broken promises. The Miro deal proves that a high valuation is not a sustainable business.
Does the Foldable Solve a Problem?
The speakers then debated the "iPhone Duo" foldable. One said the larger screen allows for activities that occupy the mind more fully, such as watching Lawrence of Arabia or gaming while waiting in a fluorescent-lit DMV lobby. Another said that promoting larger screens ignores the way people cannot stop scrolling through feeds at dinner.
Apple has yet to prove that a foldable screen is a tool rather than a toy. A folding display is a feature, not a utility. If it does not allow a worker to finish a task faster or a twenty-two-year-old to earn a higher wage, it is just a more expensive way to be distracted. Whether it is a "Halo" product or an "anti-Halo" product is a question for marketers; for the user, the only question is whether the utility justifies the cost.
People tell us that AI is an extinction-level event and that foldable phones are a revolution. But the record shows that the only things that actually change lives are the things that change payrolls. Whether it is a software engineer in San Francisco or a millwright in Youngstown, the only metric that matters is whether the work is still there in five years. Everything else is just a bet.