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> The load time improvements had destroyed their company culture. Instead of everyone coming into the office, turning on their computers, and spending the next

by Aurornis 10mo ago

> The load time improvements had destroyed their company culture. Instead of everyone coming into the office, turning on their computers, and spending the next 10min chatting and drinking coffee One of my early tasks as a junior engineer involved some automation work in a warehouse. It got assigned to me, the junior, because it involved a lot of time working in the warehouse instead of at a comfortable desk. I assumed I’d be welcomed and appreciated for helping make their work more efficient, but the reality was not that simple. The more efficient I made the technical part of the job, the more time they had to spend doing the manual labor part of the job to keep up. So the more I reduced cycle times, the less time they had to sit around and chat. Mind you, the original process was extremely slow and non-parallel so they had a lot of time to wait. The job was still very easy. I spent weeks doing it myself to test and optimize and to this day it’s the easiest manual labor job I’ve ever worked. Yet I as the anti-hero for ruining the good thing they had going.

wiether 10mo ago
> So the more I reduced cycle times, the less time they had to sit around and chat. Couldn't help but imagining Darryl getting mad at you. Thanks for the story!
vkou 10mo ago
> The more efficient I made the technical part of the job, the more time they had to spend doing the manual labor part of the job to keep up. So the more I reduced cycle times, the less time they had to sit around and chat. The faster the LLM spits out garbage code, the more time I get to spend reviewing slop and dealing with it gaslighting me, and the less time I get to spend on doing the parts of the job I actually enjoy.
vbezhenar 10mo ago
One of my work involved automating some process which was very manual and tedious, took a lot of time and there was dedicated employee for that process. After I did the project, it turned out that this job wasn't necessary anymore and that employee was fired. I felt uneasy about the whole situation.
- yujzgzc 10mo ago
  "Laid off" may be more appropriate than "fired", but in essence, removing the need for costly labor is often the main "value" of any technology. Society as a whole comes out ahead from it, I mean for all the ice transporters and merchants put out of a job by electric refrigeration, and all the sailors put out of a job by modern cargo ships I think we're better off for it. But at the individual level it does make one uneasy about the prospects of individuals affected by it. My personal conclusion is that people have a personal duty to anticipate and adapt to change, society might give them some help along the way but it doesn't owe them that their way of life will be maintained forever.
  - taftster 10mo ago
    This says a lot as relating to the rise of AI and the fear of job loss. There's going to be displacement in areas we can't predict, but overall it might very well just lead to leveling up the entire workforce.
    - Nevermark 10mo ago
      > it might very well just lead to leveling up the entire workforce. How could that possibly work? At some point I could see white collar work trending down fast, in a way that radically increased the value of blue color work. Software gets cheaper much faster than hardware. But then the innovation and investments go into smart hardware, and robotics effectiveness/cost goes up. If you can see a path where AI isn't a one-generational transition to most human (economic) obsolescence, I would certainly be interested in the principle or mechanism you see.
      - gnatolf 10mo ago
        Craftsmen will have a resurgence, that's probably a 'leveling up' in terms of resilience against AI takeover. There's just no way of automating quite a few of the physically effective crafts.
        10mo ago
agobineau 10mo ago
insane mindset. This kind of thing is why there is no industry left in anglosphere outside US
- pbhjpbhj 10mo ago
  Insane mindset that people should work modestly, get paid modestly and live in the fruits of a wealthy society? As opposed to breaking their backs to make a boss even wealthier? The efficiencies are always to the benefit of the wealthy, the wage gap grows. You work hard, you still get fired. Cap top wages to 5x the lowest, companies can't own housing except socially beneficial housing, individuals get 2 house maximum.
zwnow 10mo ago
Yup same story here, also warehouse optimization. I was the reason the employees got new scanners and oh my... the scanners didn't have a physical keyboard. Now all the 50yo+ would have to aim on a touch display which is apparently impossible. Also we had to introduce some fixed locations and storage placement recommendations. Our storage workers almost revolted. After a few months it settled though.
- pif 10mo ago
  Yous story is not about optimization: it is about change imposed to people who did not request it, nor felt the need of it.
  - zwnow 10mo ago
    It 100% was about optimization. Introducing new devices, with more capabilities (storage place recommendations for example), that weren't 10 years old and broke every 2 weeks is optimizing.
rahimnathwani 10mo ago
The more efficient I made the technical part of the job, the more time they had to spend doing the manual labor part of the job to keep up. Imagine you like writing code, and someone automates that part of the job so you have to spend more of your time reviewing PRs and writing specs...
- lazylizard 10mo ago
  efficiency is the enemy of employment, no?
  - regularfry 10mo ago
    The amount of work expands to fill the available labour. All other things being equal, at least. Which they aren't, but it's a usefully wrong model.
  - intended 10mo ago
    There’s many praises to sing about efficiency, (and I don’t take your 1 liner as a position against it). That said, efficiency, job creation, and underemployment overlap quite a bit. There’s far more scientists, programmers, and doctors today than farmers and stablehands. At the same time, people who lost manufacturing jobs to automation and outsourcing, did not get jobs with equivalent pay and growth. Human brains do not get retrained very easily, and so every technological revolution is a boon to those who grasp it, and a challenge for those who invested their time in skills no longer in demand.
    - wbl 10mo ago
      Nursing massively expanded but they didn't want to take it.
      - psunavy03 10mo ago
        You can't expect factory workers to magically turn into nurses. Sure, people can learn new things, but human skillsets are not entirely fungible.
deleted 10mo ago
[deleted]
pif 10mo ago
Mandatory reference: https://thedailywtf.com/articles/Classic-WTF-The-Indexer https://thedailywtf.com/articles/Classic-WTF-The-Indexer

wiether 10mo ago

> So the more I reduced cycle times, the less time they had to sit around and chat. Couldn't help but imagining Darryl getting mad at you. Thanks for the story!

vkou 10mo ago

> The more efficient I made the technical part of the job, the more time they had to spend doing the manual labor part of the job to keep up. So the more I reduced cycle times, the less time they had to sit around and chat. The faster the LLM spits out garbage code, the more time I get to spend reviewing slop and dealing with it gaslighting me, and the less time I get to spend on doing the parts of the job I actually enjoy.

vbezhenar 10mo ago

One of my work involved automating some process which was very manual and tedious, took a lot of time and there was dedicated employee for that process. After I did the project, it turned out that this job wasn't necessary anymore and that employee was fired. I felt uneasy about the whole situation.

yujzgzc 10mo ago
"Laid off" may be more appropriate than "fired", but in essence, removing the need for costly labor is often the main "value" of any technology. Society as a whole comes out ahead from it, I mean for all the ice transporters and merchants put out of a job by electric refrigeration, and all the sailors put out of a job by modern cargo ships I think we're better off for it. But at the individual level it does make one uneasy about the prospects of individuals affected by it. My personal conclusion is that people have a personal duty to anticipate and adapt to change, society might give them some help along the way but it doesn't owe them that their way of life will be maintained forever.
- taftster 10mo ago
  This says a lot as relating to the rise of AI and the fear of job loss. There's going to be displacement in areas we can't predict, but overall it might very well just lead to leveling up the entire workforce.
  - Nevermark 10mo ago
    > it might very well just lead to leveling up the entire workforce. How could that possibly work? At some point I could see white collar work trending down fast, in a way that radically increased the value of blue color work. Software gets cheaper much faster than hardware. But then the innovation and investments go into smart hardware, and robotics effectiveness/cost goes up. If you can see a path where AI isn't a one-generational transition to most human (economic) obsolescence, I would certainly be interested in the principle or mechanism you see.
    - gnatolf 10mo ago
      Craftsmen will have a resurgence, that's probably a 'leveling up' in terms of resilience against AI takeover. There's just no way of automating quite a few of the physically effective crafts.
      - 10mo ago

agobineau 10mo ago

insane mindset. This kind of thing is why there is no industry left in anglosphere outside US

pbhjpbhj 10mo ago
Insane mindset that people should work modestly, get paid modestly and live in the fruits of a wealthy society? As opposed to breaking their backs to make a boss even wealthier? The efficiencies are always to the benefit of the wealthy, the wage gap grows. You work hard, you still get fired. Cap top wages to 5x the lowest, companies can't own housing except socially beneficial housing, individuals get 2 house maximum.

zwnow 10mo ago

Yup same story here, also warehouse optimization. I was the reason the employees got new scanners and oh my... the scanners didn't have a physical keyboard. Now all the 50yo+ would have to aim on a touch display which is apparently impossible. Also we had to introduce some fixed locations and storage placement recommendations. Our storage workers almost revolted. After a few months it settled though.

pif 10mo ago
Yous story is not about optimization: it is about change imposed to people who did not request it, nor felt the need of it.
- zwnow 10mo ago
  It 100% was about optimization. Introducing new devices, with more capabilities (storage place recommendations for example), that weren't 10 years old and broke every 2 weeks is optimizing.

rahimnathwani 10mo ago

The more efficient I made the technical part of the job, the more time they had to spend doing the manual labor part of the job to keep up. Imagine you like writing code, and someone automates that part of the job so you have to spend more of your time reviewing PRs and writing specs...

lazylizard 10mo ago
efficiency is the enemy of employment, no?
- regularfry 10mo ago
  The amount of work expands to fill the available labour. All other things being equal, at least. Which they aren't, but it's a usefully wrong model.
- intended 10mo ago
  There’s many praises to sing about efficiency, (and I don’t take your 1 liner as a position against it). That said, efficiency, job creation, and underemployment overlap quite a bit. There’s far more scientists, programmers, and doctors today than farmers and stablehands. At the same time, people who lost manufacturing jobs to automation and outsourcing, did not get jobs with equivalent pay and growth. Human brains do not get retrained very easily, and so every technological revolution is a boon to those who grasp it, and a challenge for those who invested their time in skills no longer in demand.
  - wbl 10mo ago
    Nursing massively expanded but they didn't want to take it.
    - psunavy03 10mo ago
      You can't expect factory workers to magically turn into nurses. Sure, people can learn new things, but human skillsets are not entirely fungible.

deleted 10mo ago

[deleted]

pif 10mo ago

Mandatory reference: https://thedailywtf.com/articles/Classic-WTF-The-Indexer https://thedailywtf.com/articles/Classic-WTF-The-Indexer