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I wouldn't underestimate the anxiety it's causing. Most of my social circle are non-technicial. A lot of people have had a difficult time with work recently, f

I wouldn't underestimate the anxiety it's causing. Most of my social circle are non-technicial. A lot of people have had a difficult time with work recently, for various reasons. The global economic climate feels very precarious, politics is ugly, people feel powerless and afraid. AI tends to come up in the "state of the world" conversation. It's destroying friends' decade old businesses in translation, copywriting and editing. It's completely upturned a lot of other jobs, I know a lot of teachers and academics, for example. Corporate enthusiasm for AI is seen for what it actually is, a chance to cut head count. I'm into AI, I get value out of it, but decision makers need to read the room a bit better. The vibe in 2025 is angry and scared.

surgical_fire 1y ago
> Corporate enthusiasm for AI is seen for what it actually is, a chance to cut head count I mean, it is the reason why the usual suspects push it so aggressively. The underclasses much always be pushed down. It's mostly bullshit, on most areas LLMs cannot reliably replace humans. But they embrace it because the chance that it might undermine labor is very seductive.
- acdha 1y ago
  Even if it doesn’t replace humans, simply having the prospect looming allows them to lower pay and deter people from asking for better working conditions.
- spacemadness 1y ago
  Instead of taking time to understand how it may be effective, a lot of leadership decided immediately that people could take on double the work they were doing or more right out the gate as long as they use AI. I’ve seen people driven to tears in this environment right now from stress due to overwork. Everyone in my org was either burnt out or soon to be. And that overwork is from managers demanding more and more without any data to back up exactly how much more is reasonable. Then you get these types on HN calling people luddites for having strong opinions and anxieties as if it’s only ever about the technology itself and not the effect it has on actual people in a cutthroat capitalist system. That’s exactly the sort of thing that brought the term “tech bro” into the limelight.
  - csa 1y ago
    > I’ve seen people driven to tears in this environment right now from stress due to overwork. Everyone in my org was either burnt out or soon to be. And that overwork is from managers demanding more and more without any data to back up exactly how much more is reasonable. This is just bad management. AI might be the buzzword of the day that comes out of their mouths, but the issue is bad management rather than AI. Said another way, if it wasn’t AI, it would be something else. Are all of the items in the long list of something elses in the past and in the future the actual villain here? I don’t think so. > Then you get these types on HN calling people luddites for having strong opinions and anxieties as if it’s only ever about the technology itself and not the effect it has on actual people Why are you blaming the tech rather than the source of the problem? Point your finger at the people who are creating the problems — hint, it’s the management and not tools. AI is just a tool. Just like any tool, it can be used for good or for bad. It can be used skillfully or unskillfully. Right now, we are certainly in a high variance stage of quality of implementation. That said, I think AI will do a good job of shining a bright light on the pretenders… it will be much tougher for them to hide. > in a cutthroat capitalist system. Unchecked capitalism certainly can take some of the blame here. The problem is that the only system that is better than the current system is almost certainly some other form of capitalism (maybe with some humanity checks and balances). > That’s exactly the sort of thing that brought the term “tech bro” into the limelight. Thank you for this. I’m pretty sure that this is the first time I’ve been called a “tech bro” — certainly the first time directly. My friends and family will get a kick out of this, since I have routinely outed tech bros who are more style than substance. I’m fairly certain that I don’t fall into that category.
    - spacemadness 1y ago
      You’re twisting my words. I didn’t blame the tech. I blamed management and how they perceive the tech. Tech and hype have societal effects that can cause a lot of pain. Ignoring that helps nobody. That’s why people created the term tech bro, to highlight tech careerists that haven’t a clue or don’t care about the effects of their work on society. If we had reasonable takes on the techs limitations you wouldn’t have people in charge overreaching like this due to their own ignorance. But lots of these folks want to believe the hype as it’s in their best interest to do so.

surgical_fire 1y ago

> Corporate enthusiasm for AI is seen for what it actually is, a chance to cut head count I mean, it is the reason why the usual suspects push it so aggressively. The underclasses much always be pushed down. It's mostly bullshit, on most areas LLMs cannot reliably replace humans. But they embrace it because the chance that it might undermine labor is very seductive.

acdha 1y ago
Even if it doesn’t replace humans, simply having the prospect looming allows them to lower pay and deter people from asking for better working conditions.
spacemadness 1y ago
Instead of taking time to understand how it may be effective, a lot of leadership decided immediately that people could take on double the work they were doing or more right out the gate as long as they use AI. I’ve seen people driven to tears in this environment right now from stress due to overwork. Everyone in my org was either burnt out or soon to be. And that overwork is from managers demanding more and more without any data to back up exactly how much more is reasonable. Then you get these types on HN calling people luddites for having strong opinions and anxieties as if it’s only ever about the technology itself and not the effect it has on actual people in a cutthroat capitalist system. That’s exactly the sort of thing that brought the term “tech bro” into the limelight.
- csa 1y ago
  > I’ve seen people driven to tears in this environment right now from stress due to overwork. Everyone in my org was either burnt out or soon to be. And that overwork is from managers demanding more and more without any data to back up exactly how much more is reasonable. This is just bad management. AI might be the buzzword of the day that comes out of their mouths, but the issue is bad management rather than AI. Said another way, if it wasn’t AI, it would be something else. Are all of the items in the long list of something elses in the past and in the future the actual villain here? I don’t think so. > Then you get these types on HN calling people luddites for having strong opinions and anxieties as if it’s only ever about the technology itself and not the effect it has on actual people Why are you blaming the tech rather than the source of the problem? Point your finger at the people who are creating the problems — hint, it’s the management and not tools. AI is just a tool. Just like any tool, it can be used for good or for bad. It can be used skillfully or unskillfully. Right now, we are certainly in a high variance stage of quality of implementation. That said, I think AI will do a good job of shining a bright light on the pretenders… it will be much tougher for them to hide. > in a cutthroat capitalist system. Unchecked capitalism certainly can take some of the blame here. The problem is that the only system that is better than the current system is almost certainly some other form of capitalism (maybe with some humanity checks and balances). > That’s exactly the sort of thing that brought the term “tech bro” into the limelight. Thank you for this. I’m pretty sure that this is the first time I’ve been called a “tech bro” — certainly the first time directly. My friends and family will get a kick out of this, since I have routinely outed tech bros who are more style than substance. I’m fairly certain that I don’t fall into that category.
  - spacemadness 1y ago
    You’re twisting my words. I didn’t blame the tech. I blamed management and how they perceive the tech. Tech and hype have societal effects that can cause a lot of pain. Ignoring that helps nobody. That’s why people created the term tech bro, to highlight tech careerists that haven’t a clue or don’t care about the effects of their work on society. If we had reasonable takes on the techs limitations you wouldn’t have people in charge overreaching like this due to their own ignorance. But lots of these folks want to believe the hype as it’s in their best interest to do so.