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Appearing productive in the workplace

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Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#31

Post by saganus »

AIorNot wrote: post #25
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 technolo…

From past experiences (and I'm sure I'm not alone here), I can almost guarantee that the senior devs did communicate the problems, but they were ignored or brushed aside.

Very seldomly does middle/upper management truly listens to engineers, unless there's buy-in from the CTO/VP to champion the ideas and complaints.

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#32

Post by smokel »

swader999 wrote: post #26
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.

The preferred solution actually moves my arm around a bit so that it works in a physical office. For remote work, there are so called "mouse jigglers" [1], but those do not require sunglasses to work.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse_jiggler

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#33

Post by fallinditch »

Increasingly, there is a disconnect between established operational/corporate systems and the new AI-enhanced powers of individual workers.

The over-production of documents is just one symptom. It's clear that organizations are struggling to successfully evolve in the era of worker 'superpowers'. Probably because change is hard!

Perhaps this is indicative of a failure of imagination as much as anything? The AI era is not living up to its potential if workers are given superpowers, but they are not empowered to use them effectively.

Empowered teams and individuals have more accountability and ownership of business outcomes - this points to a need for flatter hierarchies and enlightened governance, supported by appropriate models of collaboration and reporting (AI helps here too!).

In the OP article the writer IMHO reached the wrong conclusion about their colleague who built a system that didn't work - this sounds like the sort of initiative that should be encouraged, and perhaps the failure here points to a lack of technical support and oversight of the colleague's project.

Now more than ever organizations need enlightened leadership who have flexible mindsets and who are capable to envisioning and executing radicle organizational strategies.

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#34

Post by DANmode »

swader999 wrote: post #26
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.

That’s neat, but they’re talking Weekend at Bernie’s style, in a physical office.

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#35

Post by bambax »

I intensely agree with everything that's being said in TFA; this however could be nuanced:

> Never ask a model for confirmation; the tool agrees with everyone

If asked properly, LLMs can be used to poke holes in an existing reasoning or come up with new ideas or things to explore. So yes, never ask a model for confirmation or encouragement; but you can absolutely ask it to critique something, and that's often of value.

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#36

Post by krptos »

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've personally witnessed this:

1. My own manager now gives "expert advice and suggestions" using Claude based on his/her incomplete understanding of the domain.

2. Multiple non-technical people within the company are developing internal software tools to be deployed org wide. Hoping such demos will get them their recognition and incentives that they deserve. Management as expected are impressed and approving such POCs.

3. Hyperactive colleagues showcasing expert looking demos that leadership buys. All the while has zero understanding of what's happening underneath.

I didn't know how to articulate this problem well, but this article does a great job!

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#37

Post by bambax »

smokel wrote: post #32
swader999 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The preferred solution actually moves my arm around a bit so that it works in a physical office. For remote work, there are so called "mouse jigglers" [1], but those do not require sunglasses to work. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse_jiggler

Yeah but mouse jigglers 1/ have to be plugged in / occupy a USB port, 2/ usually don't turn off when LOGOFF, resulting in battery depletion and 3/ don't work on remote servers where you would want an RDP session to stay open but there are group policies that prevent it.

I wrote a small C utility that avoids all 3 problems and now I couldn't live without it!

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#39

Post by a34729t »

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…

We don't need AI for not producing anything of value in a large company, though it certainly helps us produce even less!

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#40

Post by pkulak »

bambax wrote: post #35

I intensely agree with everything that's being said in TFA; this however could be nuanced: > Never ask a model for confirmation; the tool agrees with everyone If asked properly, LLMs can be used to poke holes in an existing reasoning or come up with new ideas or things to explore. So yes, never ask a model for confirmation or encouragement; but you can absolutely ask it to critique something, and that's often of valu…

One of the best uses of AI I've found is code reviewing stuff I've written either entirely myself, or even code generated in a previous session.
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