Adam D’Angelo (Quora/Poe) thinks we're 5 years from automating remote work. Amjad Masad (Replit) thinks we're brute-forcing intelligence without understanding it. In this conversation, two technical founders who are building the AI future disagree on almost everything: whether LLMs are hitting limits, if we're anywhere close to AGI, and what happens when entry-level jobs disappear but experts remain irreplaceable. They dig into the uncomfortable reality that AI might create a "missing middle" in the job market, why everyone in SF is suddenly too focused on getting rich to do weird experiments, and whether consciousness research has been abandoned for prompt engineering. Plus: Why coding agents can now run for 20+ hours straight, the return of the "sovereign individual" thesis, and the surprising sophistication of everyday users juggling multiple AIs. Timestamps 00:00 Introduction 00:41 The Bearishness Paradox: "I don't know what people are talking about" 04:25 "Functional AGI" - Brute Forcing Your Way to Automation 11:18 "We are in a human expertise regime" 15:31 The Weird Equilibrium: Automating Entry-Level but Not Experts 17:22 The Expert Data Paradox 24:44 The Sovereign Individual: A Prediction Framework for the AI Era 28:51 "Vastly increased what a single person can do" 45:04 "It's gonna be the decade of agents" 49:01 Managing Tens of Agents in Parallel 52:56 "I actually think vibe coding is unbelievably high potential" 58:47 Claude 4.5's Strange New Awareness Resources Follow Amjad on X: https://x.com/amasad Follow Adam on X: https://x.com/adamdangelo Stay Updated: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends! Find a16z on X: https://x.com/a16z Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z Listen to the a16z Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX Listen to the a16z Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711 Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.