Appearing productive in the workplace • Hacker News Board

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#21

Post by switchbak » Wed, May 06, 2026, 5:51 PM UTC

snozolli wrote: post #8

Back around 2005, I worked with a guy who was trying to position himself as the go-to expert on the team. He'd always jump at the chance to explain things to QA and the support team. We'd occasionally hear follow-up questions from those teams and realize that he was just making things up. He was also had a serious case of cargo-cult mentality. He'd see some behavior and ascribe it to something unrelated, then insist…

I find it astounding how otherwise intelligent people fall for such obvious theatre. One really does need a particular mindset to filter this out, and that is almost entirely absent from typical management. As usual, if you don't have an actual reliable signal, or acquiring that signal takes too long - you'll fall back to relying on cheap proxy signals. Confidence over competence, etc. And those that are best at self-promotion and politics win.

I've got recent experience in exactly this - someone who is completely out of their depth, mis-representing their actual capabilities. Their reliance on AI is so strong because of this lack of depth - to such a degree that they never learn anything. Lately they've been creating drama and endless discussions about dumb things to a) try to appear like they have strong opinions, and b) to filabust the time so they don't have to talk about important things related to their work output.

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#22

Post by smokel » Wed, May 06, 2026, 5:56 PM UTC

It would be nice if someone invented a mouse with a tiny motor inside, so I could put on sunglasses, rest my hand on the mouse, doze off, and still look like I'm working hard.

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#23

Post by throwaway613746 » Wed, May 06, 2026, 5:56 PM UTC

proofofcontempt wrote: post #19

What is described here closely resembles my experience too. My company is full of managers who haven't written code in years. They hired an architect 18 months ago who used AI to architect everything. To the senior devs it was obvious - everything was massively over engineered, yet because he used all the proper terminology he sounded more competent to upper management than the other senior managers who didn't. When…

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Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#24

Post by darepublic » Wed, May 06, 2026, 5:57 PM UTC

I was tasked with coming up with a solution in 5 weeks which took another firm six months to produce. Never used agentic coding so much before or knew my code less well. Requirements are garbage though ,vague and just "copy what these other guys did, but better". I tried for. Couple of the weeks to get better specs but eventually gave up and just started building stuff to present.

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#25

Post by AIorNot » Wed, May 06, 2026, 6:00 PM UTC

proofofcontempt wrote: post #19

What is described here closely resembles my experience too. My company is full of managers who haven't written code in years. They hired an architect 18 months ago who used AI to architect everything. To the senior devs it was obvious - everything was massively over engineered, yet because he used all the proper terminology he sounded more competent to upper management than the other senior managers who didn't. When…

Yes I get your frustration, the same thing is happening across orgs these days as claude and co-work has become widespread.

Wisdom is a thing, so is competence. Humans have it or they don't but machines do not (yet), but the massive capabilities of the tools are also something that can't be ignored.

We can't throw the baby out with the bathwater. It's going to take some cycles of learning the ropes with this technology for humans to understand it better.

I would push back -why couldn't the senior devs communicate these issues to senior management? It sounds like a broken human system not a broken tool or technology. All AI did was shine a light on the human issues on that org.

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#26

Post by swader999 » Wed, May 06, 2026, 6:00 PM UTC

smokel wrote: post #22

It would be nice if someone invented a mouse with a tiny motor inside, so I could put on sunglasses, rest my hand on the mouse, doze off, and still look like I'm working hard.

It's called a wrist watch with a moving second hand. Just put your current mouse on top of that.

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#27

Post by ryandrake » Wed, May 06, 2026, 6:01 PM UTC

proofofcontempt wrote: post #19

What is described here closely resembles my experience too. My company is full of managers who haven't written code in years. They hired an architect 18 months ago who used AI to architect everything. To the senior devs it was obvious - everything was massively over engineered, yet because he used all the proper terminology he sounded more competent to upper management than the other senior managers who didn't. When…

I'm sure they're even more all-in on AI every month. "We will surely succeed if only we AI even harder!" This is how self-reinforcing delusions work. "AI will close the gap" is the fixed belief, and any evidence that comes in is interpreted such that it strengthens that belief.

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#28

Post by switchbak » Wed, May 06, 2026, 6:01 PM UTC

proofofcontempt wrote: post #19

What is described here closely resembles my experience too. My company is full of managers who haven't written code in years. They hired an architect 18 months ago who used AI to architect everything. To the senior devs it was obvious - everything was massively over engineered, yet because he used all the proper terminology he sounded more competent to upper management than the other senior managers who didn't. When…

I think for a lot of companies, AI is a destabilizing force that their managerial structure is unable to compensate for.

When you change the economics to such a degree, you're basically removing a dam - resulting in far more stress on the rest of the system. If the leaders of the org don't see the potential downsides and risks of that, they're in for a world of hurt.

I think we're going to see a real surge of companies just like this - crash and burn even though this tech was sold as being a universal improvement. The ones that survive will spread their knowledge about how to tame this wild horse, and ideally we'll learn a thing or two in the future.

But the wave of naivety has surprised me, and I think there's an endless onrush of people that are overly excited about their new ability to vibe-code things into existence. I think we've got our own endless September event going on for the foreseeable future.

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#29

Post by ryandrake » Wed, May 06, 2026, 6:04 PM UTC

jdw64 wrote: post #18

switchbak wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please explain what you would have preferred instead, I'm failing to understand your criticism here.

What I see in this article is a kind of structural isomorphism: it sincerely criticizes AI slop while reproducing the same failure mode it is criticizing. Intentional rhetorical repetition is not necessarily bad. I repeat myself too when I want to make a point stronger. The problem is the context. This is an article that sincerely criticizes the inflation of workplace artifacts. In that context, repetition and expans…

I mean, not every communication can be a PhD dissertation that provides dozens of examples as evidence and cites 100 sources. Sometimes, it's enough to have a single good, representative example and build a narrative around that through rhetorical devices like repetition. We are not holding the author to the standard of proof that academic papers are held to. I agree, though, that repetition, if that's all the author is leaning on, can get annoying.

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#30

Post by jdw64 » Wed, May 06, 2026, 6:05 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #14

jdw64 wrote: post #7

After reading this article, I can definitely feel how productivity rises inside organizations. More precisely, this feels like a person who would be loved by management. The article almost reads like a practical manual for increasing perceived productivity inside a company. The argument is repetitive: 1. AI generates convincing-looking artifacts without corresponding judgment. 2. Organizations mistake those artifacts…

> The article almost reads like a practical manual for increasing perceived productivity inside a company. I think the truth is that at many (most?) places, perceived productivity and convincing is all that matters. You don't actually have to be productive if you can convince the right people above you that you are productive. You don't have to have competence if you can convince them of your competence. You don't ha…

I agree. but,In practice, the important thing is that, whatever one thinks of management, you still have to speak in terms they recognize and want to hear.

The target changes, but the mechanism is similar. This is often criticized, but it is also necessary even in ordinary conversation. The core skill is the ability to guide the agenda toward the place where your own argument can matter.

I do not believe that good technology necessarily succeeds. Personally, I see this through the lens of agenda-setting. Agenda-setting matters. I am usually a third party looking at organizations from the outside, but when I observe them, there are almost always factions. And inside those factions, there are people with real influence. Their long-term power often comes from setting the agenda.

From that perspective, AI slop looks like a failure of agenda-setting around why the market should need it.

They encourage people to exploit human desire and creative motivation. But the problem is this: the market still wants value and scarcity. From that angle, this mismatch with public expectations may be a serious problem for the AI-selling industry.