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"Optifye.ai, launched by Duke University computer science students Baid and Mohta, is backed by Y Combinator, according to the company’s site. On their Y Combin

by krunck 2y ago

"Optifye.ai, launched by Duke University computer science students Baid and Mohta, is backed by Y Combinator, according to the company’s site. On their Y Combinator company profile, they write that both of their families run manufacturing plants, where they’ve been exposed to factory working conditions since they were children. “I've been around assembly lines for as long as I can remember,” Baid wrote. Mohta wrote, “My family also runs several manufacturing plants in various industries, which has given me unrestricted access to assembly lines since I was 15.” " So these guys come from families that run factories and manage workers. They NEVER worked in one themselves. It's their turn to sit in the factory for 12 hour a day, 5+ days a week and have AI assisted asses badgering them all day.

some_random 2y ago
Glad to see that their mandatory ethics and liberal arts classes have instilled empathetic and humanist values in them.
- morkalork 2y ago
  Well you know what they say, you can lead a horse to water
jrussino 2y ago
> It's their turn to sit in the factory for 12 hour a day, 5+ days a week and have AI assisted asses badgering them all day. I'm reminded of this famous Jefferson quote: "I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain." I think it's natural for us to want to climb ever-higher on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and I think that's essentially what Jefferson was expressing. But there's a perverse version of this that happens in our society, because for so many of us life gets framed as a ladder or a hill you have to climb, and your position feels so very precarious - no matter where you start or how high you climb! And so we see certain work as "beneath our station". I don't want to make assumptions about what's in the hearts of these particular founders, but I've met plenty who grow to see even the work of their own parents as beneath them, because no matter how high you started, it's a failure if you ever slip below. For so many of us, being in a position to own and operate multiple manufacturing plants would afford us a life of relative luxury and status beyond what we imagine we could realistically achieve. But to someone who can practically inherit that position by default, even that isn't enough. They need to automate it away, to build a larger empire, to take another step up the wealth and status ladder. I'm not sure exactly how to criticize this. I agree with the spirit of that Jefferson quote. I often think of my own life and the lives of my kids through the lens of Maslow's hierarchy. I think maybe the problem is that the material wealth and social status that get used as a ruler for measuring a "good life" have become so incredibly de-coupled from actually doing good work and/or being a good person.
- 47282847 2y ago
  I read the Jefferson quote and his “I“ as part of society that gradually improve(s/d) to a point where people are given the chance to study what their passion is for passions sake - which is an end goal, where it can stop. Not as an individual family growth ladder that needs repetition. As an “if we all work together we can achieve this paradise within three generations from where we are“.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - mckn1ght 2y ago
    But it’s of course a ridiculous concept because the world is full of jobs needing to be done that are very hard to accomplish, nigh impossible to automate and as Mike Rowe calls them, simply “dirty.” The world is going to need plumbers for a long, long time.
- miles 2y ago
  > ...life gets framed as a ladder or a hill you have to climb, and your position feels so very precarious - no matter where you start or how high you climb! Reminded of this line from chapter 13 of Mitchell's freehand Tao Te Ching translation[1]: Whether you go up the ladder or down it, you position is shaky. [1] https://ttc.tasuki.org/display:Code:sm/section:13 https://ttc.tasuki.org/display:Code:sm/section:13
- keiferski 2y ago
  Great quote. It’s from Adams though - a perennially under appreciated president. https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L17800512jasecond https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L178005...
  - jrussino 2y ago
    Ah you're right! Thanks for the correction. Wish I could go back and edit but it's too late.
404mm 2y ago
F! those two in particular.

by krunck 2y ago

some_random 2y ago

Glad to see that their mandatory ethics and liberal arts classes have instilled empathetic and humanist values in them.

morkalork 2y ago
Well you know what they say, you can lead a horse to water

jrussino 2y ago

> It's their turn to sit in the factory for 12 hour a day, 5+ days a week and have AI assisted asses badgering them all day. I'm reminded of this famous Jefferson quote: "I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain." I think it's natural for us to want to climb ever-higher on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and I think that's essentially what Jefferson was expressing. But there's a perverse version of this that happens in our society, because for so many of us life gets framed as a ladder or a hill you have to climb, and your position feels so very precarious - no matter where you start or how high you climb! And so we see certain work as "beneath our station". I don't want to make assumptions about what's in the hearts of these particular founders, but I've met plenty who grow to see even the work of their own parents as beneath them, because no matter how high you started, it's a failure if you ever slip below. For so many of us, being in a position to own and operate multiple manufacturing plants would afford us a life of relative luxury and status beyond what we imagine we could realistically achieve. But to someone who can practically inherit that position by default, even that isn't enough. They need to automate it away, to build a larger empire, to take another step up the wealth and status ladder. I'm not sure exactly how to criticize this. I agree with the spirit of that Jefferson quote. I often think of my own life and the lives of my kids through the lens of Maslow's hierarchy. I think maybe the problem is that the material wealth and social status that get used as a ruler for measuring a "good life" have become so incredibly de-coupled from actually doing good work and/or being a good person.

47282847 2y ago
I read the Jefferson quote and his “I“ as part of society that gradually improve(s/d) to a point where people are given the chance to study what their passion is for passions sake - which is an end goal, where it can stop. Not as an individual family growth ladder that needs repetition. As an “if we all work together we can achieve this paradise within three generations from where we are“.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- mckn1ght 2y ago
  But it’s of course a ridiculous concept because the world is full of jobs needing to be done that are very hard to accomplish, nigh impossible to automate and as Mike Rowe calls them, simply “dirty.” The world is going to need plumbers for a long, long time.
miles 2y ago
> ...life gets framed as a ladder or a hill you have to climb, and your position feels so very precarious - no matter where you start or how high you climb! Reminded of this line from chapter 13 of Mitchell's freehand Tao Te Ching translation[1]: Whether you go up the ladder or down it, you position is shaky. [1] https://ttc.tasuki.org/display:Code:sm/section:13 https://ttc.tasuki.org/display:Code:sm/section:13
keiferski 2y ago
Great quote. It’s from Adams though - a perennially under appreciated president. https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L17800512jasecond https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L178005...
- jrussino 2y ago
  Ah you're right! Thanks for the correction. Wish I could go back and edit but it's too late.

404mm 2y ago

F! those two in particular.