Adarsh Hiremath is the co-founder and CTO of Mercor, an AI hiring platform. He addresses public advice telling students to avoid studying computer science due to AI code generation.
“My take is that programming is actually more important today And it's just going to happen at a different level of abstraction. One could argue that the leap from assembly to Python was actually maybe even a bigger leap than the leap from Python to natural language. So my answer there is that the way we define programming will look very, very different. It may be a person who, you know, has like average skills by today's standards and in computer science, Who's orchestrating thousands of superhuman coding agents to achieve more than we thought was even possible. But that skill set, which, you know, we can define as programming at a different level of abstraction, programming in English, is gonna be super important.”
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More from Adarsh Hiremath
Opinion
Hiremath: Recruiter is the most prestigious position in any company
“I think being a recruiter is the highest prestige position in any company. The recruiter is the one who controls the talent inflows and outflows of every company.”
Adarsh HiremathFeb 20, 2025▶ 0:16Adarsh Hiremath @ Mercor: The Fastest Growing Startup in Silicon Valley | E1261 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
PredictionNot checkable as stated
Hiremath: Software will be commoditized quickly as coding agents improve
“And I think like the implication for software is that software is going to get commoditized very, very quickly as these coding agents get really, really good.”
Adarsh HiremathFeb 20, 2025▶ 30:27Adarsh Hiremath @ Mercor: The Fastest Growing Startup in Silicon Valley | E1261 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Hiremath: Zero software cost businesses must rely on network effects
“The businesses that succeed in a world where software costs approach zero will be built on network effects.”
Adarsh HiremathFeb 20, 2025▶ 30:49Adarsh Hiremath @ Mercor: The Fastest Growing Startup in Silicon Valley | E1261 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Hiremath: Mercor Promoted 996 Schedule to Protect Sundays from Work
“The only reason we actually just floated those numbers out is because we didn't want our team working on Sundays.”
Adarsh HiremathFeb 20, 2025▶ 8:20Adarsh Hiremath @ Mercor: The Fastest Growing Startup in Silicon Valley | E1261 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Hiremath: Historically All Successful Companies Had Intense Work Cultures
“It's like all of the successful companies have had pretty intense cultures historically, and it's just a function of a startup, right? You got to work harder than everyone else, obviously in a sustainable way to succeed.”
Adarsh HiremathFeb 20, 2025▶ 8:58Adarsh Hiremath @ Mercor: The Fastest Growing Startup in Silicon Valley | E1261 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Hiremath: Human data labeling and talent assessment are now the same problem
“Actually, our insight about the market is that human data and talent assessment have actually become the same thing, right?”
Adarsh HiremathFeb 20, 2025▶ 11:25Adarsh Hiremath @ Mercor: The Fastest Growing Startup in Silicon Valley | E1261 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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