Automate the CEOs • Hacker News Board

Re: Automate the CEOs

#11

Post by bumby » Thu, Jun 01, 2023, 1:12 PM UTC

mxstbr wrote: post #4

…writes a person who's never been a CEO before. Which is not to say that AI won't be immensely helpful for running companies; just that once you're in the role for two days you realize that replacing that role entirely isn't going to happen. > AI can win at chess now. You think being a CEO is harder than chess? Come on. Being a CEO isn't like playing chess. Being a CEO is more like a really complex version of self-dr…

Chess also has a rigid, well-defined set of rules. Business does not. Being a CEO requires combining a lot of (sometimes nebulous) mental models, each with a degree of uncertainty, to some overall business strategy. I think it was Sam Harris who pointed out this is why there are child prodigies in subjects like math and chess, but none in something like political science.

Re: Automate the CEOs

#12

Post by boringg » Thu, Jun 01, 2023, 1:13 PM UTC

GartzenDeHaes wrote: post #6

CEO's and mid to upper management are about power, not doing things. Why is it so hard for us to understand something that is so simple and so obvious?

I mean it is about power but other things as well. Its crude and inaccurate to simplify it solely to power.

Re: Automate the CEOs

#13

Post by m0llusk » Thu, Jun 01, 2023, 1:13 PM UTC

One possible next step might be composing an example. Currently automated CEOs have achieved at best modest accomplishments.

Re: Automate the CEOs

#14

Post by bumby » Thu, Jun 01, 2023, 1:14 PM UTC

GartzenDeHaes wrote: post #6

CEO's and mid to upper management are about power, not doing things. Why is it so hard for us to understand something that is so simple and so obvious?

But what is power? It's an means to getting things done (albeit not necessarily 'doing them' yourself)

Re: Automate the CEOs

#15

Post by HPsquared » Thu, Jun 01, 2023, 1:14 PM UTC

ElfinTrousers wrote: post #7

We can't afford to do this: it would put too many coke dealers and mistresses out of business.

Already been done with Wall Street traders.

Re: Automate the CEOs

#16

Post by ElfinTrousers » Thu, Jun 01, 2023, 1:14 PM UTC

boringg wrote: post #12

GartzenDeHaes wrote: post #6

CEO's and mid to upper management are about power, not doing things. Why is it so hard for us to understand something that is so simple and so obvious?

I mean it is about power but other things as well. Its crude and inaccurate to simplify it solely to power.

Power and lying to the press, then. Still in AI's wheelhouse.

Re: Automate the CEOs

#17

Post by kristopolous » Thu, Jun 01, 2023, 1:15 PM UTC

ajsharp wrote: post #9

If CEOs were as replaceable and disconnected from the outcome of a business as the author suggests, boards would've started doing this long ago and CEO salaries would come down as a result (lots of people want to be CEOs, and by this author's logic, virtually anyone can do it). This is so disconnected from reality it reads like satire.

They replace C-level people often and the relationship isn't what you imply.

There's a structural power relationship in play. Monarchs play a fairly unimportant role these days but many countries still have them and compensate them handsomely.

CEOs are structurally capitalist monarchs. Sometimes it's even a hereditary position. They even do the corporate equivalent of court and heraldry stuff.

They're compensated not based on competency but instead, like every other job, via social arrangement.

If you don't think that's how salaries work, you're getting underpaid.

Re: Automate the CEOs

#18

Post by boringg » Thu, Jun 01, 2023, 1:15 PM UTC

ajsharp wrote: post #9

If CEOs were as replaceable and disconnected from the outcome of a business as the author suggests, boards would've started doing this long ago and CEO salaries would come down as a result (lots of people want to be CEOs, and by this author's logic, virtually anyone can do it). This is so disconnected from reality it reads like satire.

I mean i think you could probably argue the long tail of poor performing small simple companies that sell widgets you might be able to automate a chunk of tasks. Thats as far as I would be willing to go. Other than that its a dishonest or uneducated argument.

Re: Automate the CEOs

#19

Post by ElfinTrousers » Thu, Jun 01, 2023, 1:15 PM UTC

HPsquared wrote: post #15

ElfinTrousers wrote: post #7

We can't afford to do this: it would put too many coke dealers and mistresses out of business.

Already been done with Wall Street traders.

Hadn't heard, but nice.

Re: Automate the CEOs

#20

Post by brqxc » Thu, Jun 01, 2023, 1:15 PM UTC

ajsharp wrote: post #9

If CEOs were as replaceable and disconnected from the outcome of a business as the author suggests, boards would've started doing this long ago and CEO salaries would come down as a result (lots of people want to be CEOs, and by this author's logic, virtually anyone can do it). This is so disconnected from reality it reads like satire.

The real world does not work like that. If you studied at the right institution or your family knows the right people, you will get the right positions.

The whole purpose of title inflation is to direct money to your friends with plausible deniability.

Now someone will bring up the rare cases where a CEO actually did something. That does not disprove the rule.