11–18 of 18 posts
At a lot of companies, the management is constantly talking about how they're going to do trendy new things, as that tends to be what upper management or investors want to hear. A lot of the time it's pure lip service, or they spend some money on it and then quietly kill it.
People love "magical" solutions to problems. The less they know the better. If the company said "It will take 10 years of hard work to change the culture and improve our operations" the CEO would be fired. Compare that to "We are going to focus on the most advanced and exciting technologies available, Blockchain and AI". It is a much better story.
Deploying technology for technology's sake is a problem I see often--this comes down to people's attraction to new shiny objects; and it's extremely important to make sure that this tendency doesn't have a negative impact on the core business. I work for a leading AI and blockchain behemoth and I see this all the time--quite honestly it benefits my firm's sales but it's a massive problem for shareholders.
My advice for most leadership teams is to focus no your core business. Blockchain and AI are all the rage right now, but they are complicated to implement--especially in production! AI systems are very brittle and AI-Ops is not simple. There is a great paper from google titled "Machine Learning, the high interest credit card of technical debt", I suggest you have a read.
In terms of your company, if you believe these solutions will improve your core competencies and provide a competitive advantage then you should absolutely invest in these capabilities. However, it's really important to get the basics right before moving onto fancy new technologies that aren't well understood.
There is a great meme/cartoon that I like to show folks that depicts a teacher and a few students in a class where the teacher is demonstrating basic arithmetic on the blackboard and one of the students raises their hand and asks "when do we get to machine learning." I like to use this cartoon when I discuss these types of solutions because it helps me to put things in perspective.
If you're asking here, my take is that they're not. (Also, the fact that they're thinking into investing into this, just shows how clueless they are.)
So probably - just silently look for a job and leave while you can.
What does the company do?
It's an IT service provider.
Show them things like AutoML. Mention that Machine Learning isn't 100% accurate, and it will be a while yet until it is.
Explain how blockchain is an older technology and how things like proof of resource is a better way without needing expensive ASICs to keep the network secure.
Talk about hashing algorithms, ecc, which ones are the best etc. Get a promotion, make sure its done right.
1. You do not care about the company (Looks like this is not the case here): a. You have no emotion towards the company and your work doesn't get affected for the foreseeable future. b. You have no interest in the area and want to stay away from it.
2. Educate them how to do it right (You love the current company): You are in the company for long time and/or you know the people will take it in right spirit! a. It is possible to convince the managers! b. "dedicated colleagues" might be of help here.
3. Say goodbye: a. You see that they are doing it in the wrong way. Managers won't / dint consider your opinion. b. Your career gets affected by it.
4. They might be right: a. They might be right either technically or to get some funds. Finding out which one might be useful.
Unless you have more details to share about the company, I think you are the best judge which path to choose.
Overall, I feel it is not worth putting effort in educating them unless you know its taken positively and your growth in the company isn't affected. In other words, do you feel it is "worth investing your life" for? There is always a new company where you could be more happy about your career is what I feel!