5 ms·

I think it’s pretty naive to ask your employer for a day off. As experienced by companies, the market is more competitive than ever. Whoever slows down will get

by theptip 5mo ago

I think it’s pretty naive to ask your employer for a day off. As experienced by companies, the market is more competitive than ever. Whoever slows down will get eaten by some hungry upstart that is willing to work 996 to eat the incumbent’s lunch. It’s a Prisoner’s Dilemma. The only way to get this outcome is to coordinate at a level higher than individual market participants. In other words, get your government to implement UBI - tax all companies (or if AI really takes off, just compute) and redistribute to the people.

lazide 5mo ago
lol, this government is going to just throw anyone trying into the meat grinder. The only way to do this is to bypass the authorities.
- ixtli 5mo ago
  Few willing to discuss this!
- Griffinsauce 5mo ago
  Or change them.
mastazi 5mo ago
> I think it’s pretty naive to ask your employer for a day off. Someone said the same before 1938, probably [1] I think it's possible that AI will bring as much of a shift to our lives as the industrial revolution did, so it might be necessary to make some adjustments, just like we did back then. [1] https://www.history.com/articles/five-day-work-week-labor-movement https://www.history.com/articles/five-day-work-week-labor-mo...
- UncleOxidant 5mo ago
  yep. The Progressive Era (with it's 5 day work week women's suffrage ) came after, and was a backlash to The Gilded Age. Now we're in Gilded Age II (Gilded Age on Steroids). Hopefully we'll see history repeat itself and we get Progressive Era II. But keep in mind that the Progressive Era only lasted about 20 years, if that long.
ixtli 5mo ago
UBI without many other anti-capitalist reforms is just a subsidy paid directly to your landlord.
- Griffinsauce 5mo ago
  Where do you suggest we start? You can't nuke everything at once.
  - colordrops 5mo ago
    Uh, we might have to depending on how quickly AI and robots become effective at doing most jobs.
    - flohofwoe 5mo ago
      Tbh, with the productivity gains of the last 150 years, we should already be able to easily afford another weekday off for a long time. Instead most people sit around doing bullshit jobs to kill time until the weekend.
      - colordrops 5mo ago
        There's a fundamental difference with AI though. Even though we could live easily, greed drives the class with power to continue to force more and more productivity from workers, which is the elite's only source of labor. With AI, the workers won't been the most cost effective or even necessary. Very different situation. And you must be a high paid tech worker in a bubble if you think most people are just trying to "kill time". At least in the US the majority of people are living paycheck to paycheck.
- Gareth321 5mo ago
  We don't want anti-capitalist reforms. Perhaps reforms like those we use in Denmark would make sense? We're ranked higher than the U.S. in ease of business. We love capitalism here. But we also have high taxes, universal healthcare, and great social safety nets. It allows us to lean into the great parts of capitalism while also protecting those for whom capitalism isn't working so well. It's a great compromise without having to go full starvation and gulags, which would be worse than what we have now.
EliRivers 5mo ago
Whoever slows down will get eaten by some hungry upstart that is willing to work 996 to eat the incumbent’s lunch. Is this true? There are a lot of low-productivity and zombie companies trudging through year after year.
- Timwi 5mo ago
  Yeah, they're all taking a gamble and hoping that they, not their peers, will be the lucky ones with the breakthrough.
- jackp96 5mo ago
  Yeah, I see language like this a lot, but we don't live in an idealized microeconomic market with perfect information flow and competition levels. Some companies are in highly competitive spaces while others have found a quiet, profitable niche. And companies do have to compete for talent. If you want A-level players on your team, you're going to have to pay them more and/or provide benefits that surpass the competition.
- theptip 5mo ago
  There are tens if not hundreds of thousands of talented engineers that just got laid off from BigTech. Meanwhile it’s never been easier to found your own company, and if you label it as “AI for X” it’s easy to raise too. From what I see in the market, it looks obviously true. I’m sure there are lots of zombies too, they will die quickly IMO. Bad time to be a zombie, possibly the worst time ever.
soco 5mo ago
By the amount of money thrown out the AI window nowadays, a day off, or hiring a few more folks to cover for those days off and more, seems like the much cheaper option. But that's only my naive impression right?
63stack 5mo ago
"the market" is literally the arena of competition, it's not a surprise it's more competitive than ever
ForHackernews 5mo ago
Unions unions unions unions unions unions unions unions unions.
naveen99 5mo ago
The world is decentralized. People and produce can cross borders. People don’t vote for sending ubi to outside borders.
godelski 5mo ago
> Whoever slows down will get eaten by some hungry upstart that is willing to work 996 to eat the incumbent’s lunch. I hear this a lot but it seems another old saying is still true today: why is there always time to do it twice but never enough time to do it right?. If you were right then there wouldn't be so much busy work, especially at big companies. They would have become more efficient, not less.

by theptip 5mo ago

lazide 5mo ago

lol, this government is going to just throw anyone trying into the meat grinder. The only way to do this is to bypass the authorities.

ixtli 5mo ago
Few willing to discuss this!
Griffinsauce 5mo ago
Or change them.

mastazi 5mo ago

> I think it’s pretty naive to ask your employer for a day off. Someone said the same before 1938, probably [1] I think it's possible that AI will bring as much of a shift to our lives as the industrial revolution did, so it might be necessary to make some adjustments, just like we did back then. [1] https://www.history.com/articles/five-day-work-week-labor-movement https://www.history.com/articles/five-day-work-week-labor-mo...

UncleOxidant 5mo ago
yep. The Progressive Era (with it's 5 day work week women's suffrage ) came after, and was a backlash to The Gilded Age. Now we're in Gilded Age II (Gilded Age on Steroids). Hopefully we'll see history repeat itself and we get Progressive Era II. But keep in mind that the Progressive Era only lasted about 20 years, if that long.

ixtli 5mo ago

UBI without many other anti-capitalist reforms is just a subsidy paid directly to your landlord.

Griffinsauce 5mo ago
Where do you suggest we start? You can't nuke everything at once.
- colordrops 5mo ago
  Uh, we might have to depending on how quickly AI and robots become effective at doing most jobs.
  - flohofwoe 5mo ago
    Tbh, with the productivity gains of the last 150 years, we should already be able to easily afford another weekday off for a long time. Instead most people sit around doing bullshit jobs to kill time until the weekend.
    - colordrops 5mo ago
      There's a fundamental difference with AI though. Even though we could live easily, greed drives the class with power to continue to force more and more productivity from workers, which is the elite's only source of labor. With AI, the workers won't been the most cost effective or even necessary. Very different situation. And you must be a high paid tech worker in a bubble if you think most people are just trying to "kill time". At least in the US the majority of people are living paycheck to paycheck.
Gareth321 5mo ago
We don't want anti-capitalist reforms. Perhaps reforms like those we use in Denmark would make sense? We're ranked higher than the U.S. in ease of business. We love capitalism here. But we also have high taxes, universal healthcare, and great social safety nets. It allows us to lean into the great parts of capitalism while also protecting those for whom capitalism isn't working so well. It's a great compromise without having to go full starvation and gulags, which would be worse than what we have now.

EliRivers 5mo ago

Whoever slows down will get eaten by some hungry upstart that is willing to work 996 to eat the incumbent’s lunch. Is this true? There are a lot of low-productivity and zombie companies trudging through year after year.

Timwi 5mo ago
Yeah, they're all taking a gamble and hoping that they, not their peers, will be the lucky ones with the breakthrough.
jackp96 5mo ago
Yeah, I see language like this a lot, but we don't live in an idealized microeconomic market with perfect information flow and competition levels. Some companies are in highly competitive spaces while others have found a quiet, profitable niche. And companies do have to compete for talent. If you want A-level players on your team, you're going to have to pay them more and/or provide benefits that surpass the competition.
theptip 5mo ago
There are tens if not hundreds of thousands of talented engineers that just got laid off from BigTech. Meanwhile it’s never been easier to found your own company, and if you label it as “AI for X” it’s easy to raise too. From what I see in the market, it looks obviously true. I’m sure there are lots of zombies too, they will die quickly IMO. Bad time to be a zombie, possibly the worst time ever.

soco 5mo ago

By the amount of money thrown out the AI window nowadays, a day off, or hiring a few more folks to cover for those days off and more, seems like the much cheaper option. But that's only my naive impression right?

63stack 5mo ago

"the market" is literally the arena of competition, it's not a surprise it's more competitive than ever

ForHackernews 5mo ago

Unions unions unions unions unions unions unions unions unions.

naveen99 5mo ago

The world is decentralized. People and produce can cross borders. People don’t vote for sending ubi to outside borders.

godelski 5mo ago

> Whoever slows down will get eaten by some hungry upstart that is willing to work 996 to eat the incumbent’s lunch. I hear this a lot but it seems another old saying is still true today: why is there always time to do it twice but never enough time to do it right?. If you were right then there wouldn't be so much busy work, especially at big companies. They would have become more efficient, not less.