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Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?

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Re: Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?

#91

Post by antisthenes »

Nextgrid wrote: post #88
jeroenhd wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why you would reveal that you automated your job after all that time. If the contract states that you get paid in hours rather than tasks per time period, you might end up losing a lawsuit. Just leave and say nothing. Don't give your code to someone else, don't give it to the company, just go. Even without the potential lawsuit, on the odd chance that your future employer ever calls up your previou…

> Just leave and say nothing Or stay and say nothing? Why prematurely kill the golden goose?

Data entry jobs have a pretty hard cap on how much you can get paid. Besides no one wants to see a person's resume say "data entry" for 10 years.

That would be shooting your own prospects in the foot.

Re: Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?

#92

Post by Test0129 »

jll29 wrote: post #40

> I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed? Fist, a misconception, there is no such thing as "free" time (opportunity cost: whatever you do means you're not doing something else in that same time that might benefit you more). You likely used an hour in which you were not expected to work as work time (as others pointed out, check your employment contract's IP clause and the IP laws of y…

> (as others pointed out, check your employment contract's IP clause and the IP laws of your country).

This is the most critical part. Using the US for example, this software whether OP reveals or not belongs to the company (even in California). The reason is it uses the same data, the same processes, and likely even the same language. Therefore, it is "in the line company business" and most judges would rule in favor of the company despite it possibly being written on OPs own hardware.

Best advice is to just delete it, or come up with a thoughtful way of bringing it up as this comment suggests. As it stands now it's likely that OP is in hot water legally otherwise. good middle ground is to take what you've written and draft it into a proposal, never mention the code you've written, and get paid to rewrite it better. Worst case you tell them, and then the company gets their IP lawyers involved and things get dramatically worse.

Re: Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?

#94

Post by TaylorAlexander »

fatherzine wrote: post #79
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that true? People wealthy enough to ensure their lifetime survival don’t seem miserable.

Ha! If only rich heirs wasting their lives on drugs & hookers weren't such a pervasive stereotype.

It does seem hard to live in a work-centric world when you as an individual don’t have to work. But I wonder a) how true this stereotype is and b) what it would be like it no one had to work. There would be more community oriented resources for finding meaning. Wealthy individuals in a work centric world don’t have that.

Re: Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?

#95

Post by pseudalopex »

fatherzine wrote: post #79
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that true? People wealthy enough to ensure their lifetime survival don’t seem miserable.

Ha! If only rich heirs wasting their lives on drugs & hookers weren't such a pervasive stereotype.

How do you know the stereotype is correct? And poor people wasting their lives on drugs is another pervasive stereotype.

Re: Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?

#96

Post by capitalsigma »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #45
mattnewton wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The cynical me says they weren't smart enough to automate away their own work (so they could be assigned more, different work), so eff 'em, right? That is, until someone else automates away your job. Sort of besides the point but I wish someone _would_ automate my job so I can find even more interesting things to work on; I’m trying and I haven’t figured out how to yet. Yes, this is obviously only a position someon…

I genuinely believe we can make a world where no one is required to work for survival. We could intentionally automate as much as possible while also ensuring that automation is collectively owned. Then we could all collect dividends on our system with ample time off for "what we will" as the activists fighting for the 8 hour work day used to say. I believe strongly that the current economic system is effective prima…

How do we allocate resources without prices? How do we assign prices without profits and losses?

Re: Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?

#97

Post by capitalsigma »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #77
vincnetas wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget to automate defence (yah that one, military), and how to prevent any interested party in controlling that automated defence system.

I think Americans over estimate how much investment in defense is needed. Massive defense spending is needed when you’re abusing the rest of the world. Less so if you’re not.

Ukraine seems to be happy with the military aid the US is supplying

Re: Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?

#99

Post by meetingthrower »

bityard wrote: post #32
twblalock wrote: post #11

The first person who needs to know, and approve, is your manager. Don't blindside them. Managers do not like that, and your manager is definitely going to find out if anyone else does. After you tell your manager, you won't be in control of what happens next. Consider whether or not you should just keep this to yourself and treat this as a fun learning experience. Perhaps you can gauge their potential reaction by ask…

So far, this is the only sensible answer I've read here. This is the kind of thing you bring to your manager and let them decide whether it's worth pursuing further. If you frame it as, "hey, I did this thing that I think might solve a problem and here's a demo," it might work out, or it might not. You could get a promotion out of it, or maybe not. If it's a good idea and the company doesn't want to do it, or doesn't…

Couching it as a "demo" is such a good suggestion! It implies you haven't wasted too much time on it, demonstrates that you are trying to creatively problem solve for the good of the company, and brings your manager in the loop to help promote it or head off any political faux pas. Do THIS!

(Quick edit: trying hard to leverage this to get any special credit or $$ or other goodness out of it is a non-starter. You did this with company data probably on company time with company tooling. It's for them - and that's ok! You are demonstrating that you are there for the good of the team on this one. Many points awarded.)

Re: Ask HN: I automated part of someone else's job in my free time – how to proceed?

#100

Post by TaylorAlexander »

capitalsigma wrote: post #96
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I genuinely believe we can make a world where no one is required to work for survival. We could intentionally automate as much as possible while also ensuring that automation is collectively owned. Then we could all collect dividends on our system with ample time off for "what we will" as the activists fighting for the 8 hour work day used to say. I believe strongly that the current economic system is effective prima…

How do we allocate resources without prices? How do we assign prices without profits and losses?

It’s a good question. I don’t really propose we eliminate markets. But I think we can insulate individuals from prices by letting small cooperatives worry about that where individual cooperative members can just follow co-op rules.

For another example, see this real world practical example in India where a single facility gives out 50,000-100,000 free meals every day. There is a real economics to this, and it’s something I want to study. I presume they have a multitude of funding sources including donations of money and product, probably some government support for the free meals they send to schools, and volunteer labor. But they have an organization which across India gives out over 1.2 million free meals a day. It’s well worth studying how they make that work, but they certainly do make it work.

https://youtu.be/qdoJroKUwu0

But imagine you are part of a co-op that owns an automated farm. How do y’all determine who gets what? Well that’s up to the members to decide. But I think it’s an eminently solvable problem. On a larger scale different co-ops might trade using money, or might have sharing agreements between co-ops. Again, it’s up to the members.

And then for things that are reusable, libraries are a great source of inspiration. The Oakland public library has a tool lending library where you can borrow all kinds of common household tools for free. I think there’s a great number of possibilities for how to share wealth without the exchange of money, and in other cases money can be handled at the organizational level.

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