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> My manager told me that the time to deliver my latest project was cut to 20% of the original estimate because we are "an AI-first company". Lord, forgive the

> My manager told me that the time to deliver my latest project was cut to 20% of the original estimate because we are "an AI-first company". Lord, forgive them, they know not what they do.

leoc 1y ago
I think Chuck Prince's "As long as the music is playing, you've got to get up and dance. We're still dancing." from the GFC https://www.reuters.com/article/markets/funds/ex-citi-ceo-defends-dancing-quote-to-us-panel-idUSN08198108/ https://www.reuters.com/article/markets/funds/ex-citi-ceo-de... is the more relevant famous line here.
- coffeemug 1y ago
  I haven’t heard this before, this is incredible. Thanks for sharing. There were a bunch of phenomena that didn’t quite make sense to me before, which make perfect sense now that I read the quote.
- crabmusket 1y ago
  That quote was the inspiration for one of my favourite bits in the Lehman Trilogy, "the twist". There's a glimpse of it in the trailer here https://youtu.be/Lo4VC43h7ts?si=ebl9WwK2NIgW0sHD&t=49 https://youtu.be/Lo4VC43h7ts?si=ebl9WwK2NIgW0sHD&t=49 "Bobby Lehman is ninety three years old and he dances the twist. He is 100 years old! 120! Maybe 140! He dances like a madman!"
bsder 1y ago
Do not forgive them. We already have a description for them: "A bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes."
- o11c 1y ago
  Remember, the origin of that quote explicitly specifies "marketing department". The thing about hype cycles (including AI) is that the marketing department manages to convince the purchases to do their job for them.
- atleastoptimal 1y ago
  I think this hits at the heart of why you and so many people on HN hate AI. You see yourselves as the disenfranchised proletariats of tech, crusading righteously against AI companies and myopic, trend-chasing managers, resentful of their apparent success at replacing your hard-earned skill with an API call. It’s an emotional argument, born of tribalism. I’d find it easier to believe many claims on this site that AI is all a big scam and such if it weren’t so obvious that this underlies your very motivated reasoning. It is a big mirage of angst that causes people on here to clamor with perfunctory praise around every blog post claiming that AI companies are unprofitable, AI is useless, etc. Think about why you believe the things you believe. Are you motivated by reason, or resentment?
  - gdbsjjdn 1y ago
    Did you read TFA, which shows that developers are slower with AI and think they're faster? The two types of responses to AI I see are your very defensive type, and people saying "I don't get it".
    - atleastoptimal 1y ago
      The article is one person recording their own use of AI, finding no statistical significance but claiming since that the evaluated ratio of AI:human speed in performing various coding tasks resembled the METR study, that AI has no value. People have already talked about issues with the METR study, but importantly with that study and this blog post, it querying a small number of people using AI tools for the first time, working in a code base they already have experience and deep understanding of. Their claim following that is that because there hasn't been an exponential growth in App store releases, domain name registrations or Steam games, that, beyond just AI producing shoddy code, AI has led to no increase in the amount of software at all, or none that could be called remarkable or even notable in proportion to the claims made by those at AI companies. I think this ignores the obvious signs of growth in AI companies which providing software engineering and adjacent services via AI. These companies' revenues aren't emerging from nothing. People aren't paying them billions unless there is value in the product. These trends include 1. The rapid growth of revenue of AI model companies, OpenAI, Anthropic, etc. 2. The massive growth in revenue of companies that use AI including Cursor, replit, loveable etc 3. The massive valuation of these companies Anecdotally, with AI I can make shovelware apps very easily, spin them up effortlessly and fix issues I don't have the expertise or time to do myself. I don't know why the author of TFA claims that he can't make a bunch of one-off apps with capabilities avaliable today when it's clear that many many people can, have done so, have documented doing so, have made money selling those apps, etc.
- RichardCA 1y ago
  Ironically, I would far prefer the Douglas Adams idea of "Genuine People Personalities" over the current status quo. If the self checkout scanner at the supermarket started bickering with me for entering the wrong produce code, that would wrap up the whole Turing Test thing for me.
herpdyderp 1y ago
Oh, they for sure know what they're doing.
DrillShopper 1y ago
Counterpoint: fuck them, they know exactly what they do (try to extract more work for the exact same pay out of their subordinates)

> My manager told me that the time to deliver my latest project was cut to 20% of the original estimate because we are "an AI-first company". Lord, forgive them, they know not what they do.

leoc 1y ago

I think Chuck Prince's "As long as the music is playing, you've got to get up and dance. We're still dancing." from the GFC https://www.reuters.com/article/markets/funds/ex-citi-ceo-defends-dancing-quote-to-us-panel-idUSN08198108/ https://www.reuters.com/article/markets/funds/ex-citi-ceo-de... is the more relevant famous line here.

coffeemug 1y ago
I haven’t heard this before, this is incredible. Thanks for sharing. There were a bunch of phenomena that didn’t quite make sense to me before, which make perfect sense now that I read the quote.
crabmusket 1y ago
That quote was the inspiration for one of my favourite bits in the Lehman Trilogy, "the twist". There's a glimpse of it in the trailer here https://youtu.be/Lo4VC43h7ts?si=ebl9WwK2NIgW0sHD&t=49 https://youtu.be/Lo4VC43h7ts?si=ebl9WwK2NIgW0sHD&t=49 "Bobby Lehman is ninety three years old and he dances the twist. He is 100 years old! 120! Maybe 140! He dances like a madman!"

bsder 1y ago

Do not forgive them. We already have a description for them: "A bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes."

o11c 1y ago
Remember, the origin of that quote explicitly specifies "marketing department". The thing about hype cycles (including AI) is that the marketing department manages to convince the purchases to do their job for them.
atleastoptimal 1y ago
I think this hits at the heart of why you and so many people on HN hate AI. You see yourselves as the disenfranchised proletariats of tech, crusading righteously against AI companies and myopic, trend-chasing managers, resentful of their apparent success at replacing your hard-earned skill with an API call. It’s an emotional argument, born of tribalism. I’d find it easier to believe many claims on this site that AI is all a big scam and such if it weren’t so obvious that this underlies your very motivated reasoning. It is a big mirage of angst that causes people on here to clamor with perfunctory praise around every blog post claiming that AI companies are unprofitable, AI is useless, etc. Think about why you believe the things you believe. Are you motivated by reason, or resentment?
- gdbsjjdn 1y ago
  Did you read TFA, which shows that developers are slower with AI and think they're faster? The two types of responses to AI I see are your very defensive type, and people saying "I don't get it".
  - atleastoptimal 1y ago
    The article is one person recording their own use of AI, finding no statistical significance but claiming since that the evaluated ratio of AI:human speed in performing various coding tasks resembled the METR study, that AI has no value. People have already talked about issues with the METR study, but importantly with that study and this blog post, it querying a small number of people using AI tools for the first time, working in a code base they already have experience and deep understanding of. Their claim following that is that because there hasn't been an exponential growth in App store releases, domain name registrations or Steam games, that, beyond just AI producing shoddy code, AI has led to no increase in the amount of software at all, or none that could be called remarkable or even notable in proportion to the claims made by those at AI companies. I think this ignores the obvious signs of growth in AI companies which providing software engineering and adjacent services via AI. These companies' revenues aren't emerging from nothing. People aren't paying them billions unless there is value in the product. These trends include 1. The rapid growth of revenue of AI model companies, OpenAI, Anthropic, etc. 2. The massive growth in revenue of companies that use AI including Cursor, replit, loveable etc 3. The massive valuation of these companies Anecdotally, with AI I can make shovelware apps very easily, spin them up effortlessly and fix issues I don't have the expertise or time to do myself. I don't know why the author of TFA claims that he can't make a bunch of one-off apps with capabilities avaliable today when it's clear that many many people can, have done so, have documented doing so, have made money selling those apps, etc.
RichardCA 1y ago
Ironically, I would far prefer the Douglas Adams idea of "Genuine People Personalities" over the current status quo. If the self checkout scanner at the supermarket started bickering with me for entering the wrong produce code, that would wrap up the whole Turing Test thing for me.

herpdyderp 1y ago

Oh, they for sure know what they're doing.

DrillShopper 1y ago

Counterpoint: fuck them, they know exactly what they do (try to extract more work for the exact same pay out of their subordinates)