5 ms·

This wasn't really forced on us. The whole industry is like a fashion show and has been for a long time. This is just exceptionally stupid compared to moderate

by dgxyz 7mo ago

This wasn't really forced on us. The whole industry is like a fashion show and has been for a long time. This is just exceptionally stupid compared to moderately stupid things before. I see it ore that everyone's wearing pink feathered chicken suits because it's in fashion. If you don't wear a pink feathered chicken suit then you're a luddite scumbag who doesn't deserve the respect of your peers. However some of us still have enough self-respect not to be seen dead in a pink feathered chicken suit. I mean I'm still pissed off at half the other stuff we do in the industry. I haven't even really looked at the chicken suits yet.

quantified 7mo ago
Force is seeping in. Managements are expecting that LLM-driven prouctivity-enhancers will be deployed and give broad-based boosts. More are each week. Supposedly cheaper than people. Those that aren't yet might be soon. When your performance review includes facility with and productivity with LLM tools, you are being forced.
themafia 7mo ago
The "whole industry." What, like 5 companies? This is a "monopolized sector." They absolutely forced it on you. In most cases, sure, not directly, but their influence is the only driving force. Absent this no one would have jumped on this flimsy bandwagon.
piva00 7mo ago
If you work in a tech company with >5k employees it's extremely likely it's been forced down on you to wear the pink feathered chicken suit, and told to not complain about the pink feathered chicken suit because it is the inevitable future, and no one will be wearing anything that doesn't look like it ever again. Also, we are watching every straggler not in a pink feathered chicken suit, put yours on or leave the building.
- dgxyz 7mo ago
  If enough people say no, it'll stop. For ref I'm usually the guy who comes in and cleans up all the chicken corpses after.
  - pdimitar 7mo ago
    I don't know what is so mysterious about the following: People can't just leave Wednesday and be in a new job with the same or better pay next Monday. Rent/mortgage, bills and food are still due. Comments like yours always baffle me. Empty idealism. For the record, I usually get called to clean up and make things good again as well. Most of my career was like that.
    - dns_snek 7mo ago
      > People can't just leave Wednesday and be in a new job with the same or better pay next Monday. They don't have to leave, they can refuse to comply with unreasonable requests which are likely to cause harm by jeopardizing the security of user data. Maybe your position is too precarious to risk getting fired, but if your job is asking you to do something unethical then you should be doing everything you can to get yourself out of that situation, either by supporting unionization or by being willing to take a manageable pay cut to find a new job as soon as possible. If you're a software developer then you can almost certainly afford at least a moderate pay cut for upholding ethical conduct. The vast majority can even if we don't want to, but these situations are where we find out if our ethics are for sale or not.
      - pdimitar 7mo ago
        A fairly filter-bubble take. > Maybe your position is too precarious to risk getting fired You mean yours isn't? Or even that of at least 95% of all devs worldwide? I can definitely say "no" to my CEO if he wants something too big that would take too much time and energy for questionable business results -- I am even expected to ground him. But if my colleagues hand me a ticket, I cannot just refuse without repercussions. I'll not get fired on the spot, that much is certain. But if it happens 2-3 times they'll start looking for a replacement. Same will happen if I outright tell my CEO I can't do something due to ethical concerns. That's how it is almost everywhere I looked and asked (and have very rarely worked with US companies). > If you're a software developer then you can almost certainly afford at least a moderate pay cut I can't even afford a 10% pay cut. I want to live in your world.
gosub100 7mo ago
my assessment of the situation: "we've spent so much money on AI's promise to give us 5x, 10x returns, that now we have to earn it back by foisting the burden on developers to make up the gains by working harder, at least enough to recoup the exec's decision to pour money into the boondoggle". "Hey developers, we spent $x million on Claude, who promised 7x returns, so YOU better make it 7x more efficient so we don't look bad".
- andrekandre 7mo ago
  yea the real frightening thing about this is, if there is a clear failure to get roi on this stuff, the top-level people will be very reticent to walk it all back and admit it was a royal fuckup

by dgxyz 7mo ago

quantified 7mo ago

Force is seeping in. Managements are expecting that LLM-driven prouctivity-enhancers will be deployed and give broad-based boosts. More are each week. Supposedly cheaper than people. Those that aren't yet might be soon. When your performance review includes facility with and productivity with LLM tools, you are being forced.

themafia 7mo ago

The "whole industry." What, like 5 companies? This is a "monopolized sector." They absolutely forced it on you. In most cases, sure, not directly, but their influence is the only driving force. Absent this no one would have jumped on this flimsy bandwagon.

piva00 7mo ago

If you work in a tech company with >5k employees it's extremely likely it's been forced down on you to wear the pink feathered chicken suit, and told to not complain about the pink feathered chicken suit because it is the inevitable future, and no one will be wearing anything that doesn't look like it ever again. Also, we are watching every straggler not in a pink feathered chicken suit, put yours on or leave the building.

dgxyz 7mo ago
If enough people say no, it'll stop. For ref I'm usually the guy who comes in and cleans up all the chicken corpses after.
- pdimitar 7mo ago
  I don't know what is so mysterious about the following: People can't just leave Wednesday and be in a new job with the same or better pay next Monday. Rent/mortgage, bills and food are still due. Comments like yours always baffle me. Empty idealism. For the record, I usually get called to clean up and make things good again as well. Most of my career was like that.
  - dns_snek 7mo ago
    > People can't just leave Wednesday and be in a new job with the same or better pay next Monday. They don't have to leave, they can refuse to comply with unreasonable requests which are likely to cause harm by jeopardizing the security of user data. Maybe your position is too precarious to risk getting fired, but if your job is asking you to do something unethical then you should be doing everything you can to get yourself out of that situation, either by supporting unionization or by being willing to take a manageable pay cut to find a new job as soon as possible. If you're a software developer then you can almost certainly afford at least a moderate pay cut for upholding ethical conduct. The vast majority can even if we don't want to, but these situations are where we find out if our ethics are for sale or not.
    - pdimitar 7mo ago
      A fairly filter-bubble take. > Maybe your position is too precarious to risk getting fired You mean yours isn't? Or even that of at least 95% of all devs worldwide? I can definitely say "no" to my CEO if he wants something too big that would take too much time and energy for questionable business results -- I am even expected to ground him. But if my colleagues hand me a ticket, I cannot just refuse without repercussions. I'll not get fired on the spot, that much is certain. But if it happens 2-3 times they'll start looking for a replacement. Same will happen if I outright tell my CEO I can't do something due to ethical concerns. That's how it is almost everywhere I looked and asked (and have very rarely worked with US companies). > If you're a software developer then you can almost certainly afford at least a moderate pay cut I can't even afford a 10% pay cut. I want to live in your world.

gosub100 7mo ago

my assessment of the situation: "we've spent so much money on AI's promise to give us 5x, 10x returns, that now we have to earn it back by foisting the burden on developers to make up the gains by working harder, at least enough to recoup the exec's decision to pour money into the boondoggle". "Hey developers, we spent $x million on Claude, who promised 7x returns, so YOU better make it 7x more efficient so we don't look bad".

andrekandre 7mo ago
yea the real frightening thing about this is, if there is a clear failure to get roi on this stuff, the top-level people will be very reticent to walk it all back and admit it was a royal fuckup