The Pragmatic Engineer

The Pragmatic Engineer

The Pulse

The Pulse: Antigravity 2.0 takes ‘IDE’ out of its new IDE

Negative feedback greets Google’s redesigned AI IDE, why Google’s product ecosystem is so chaotic, Meta cuts 10% of staff as it hits record revenue and profits, and more

Gergely Orosz's avatar
Gergely Orosz
May 21, 2026
∙ Paid

The Pulse is a series covering events, insights, and trends within Big Tech and startups. Notice an interesting event or trend? Hit reply and share it with me.

Today, we cover:

  1. Antigravity 2.0 takes the ‘IDE’ out of its new IDE. Feedback about the redesigned IDE is overwhelmingly negative due to bugs, poor UX & model support, and eating through Gemini token quotas. Also: a clue that Antigravity’s own devs use other tools for their work?

  2. Why is Google’s product ecosystem chaotic? The range of products on display at the Google I/O conference made a messy, incoherent impression. But Google’s “let a thousand flowers bloom” approach might be giving the search giant an underrated advantage in the AI race that no other Big Tech giant has.

  3. Meta cuts 8,000 jobs. Morale is very low inside the social media giant as thousands lose their jobs, just as revenue and profits hit record levels. Meanwhile, those assigned to dull data labeling work are spared the axe.

  4. Industry pulse. Anthropic pays $15B/year for SpaceX compute, SpaceX’s financials and IPO filing, more woes for GitHub, court dismisses Elon Musk’s “hypocritical” OpenAI lawsuit, and Spain may stop blocking its internet during La Liga football games.

  5. How to get a job at a frontier lab in 2026. A Distinguished Engineer at Google recommends focusing on developing particular skills

1. Antigravity 2.0 takes the ‘IDE’ out of its new IDE

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