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Appearing productive in the workplace

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Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#381

Post by sevenzero »

wazHFsRy wrote: post #353

As everyone is an expert now[1] on paper I think it is unfortunately time for a shift again. For years I was big proponent of asynchronous remote work. But it seems like the only reasonable way forward is to discuss things face to face. I still prefer to prepare things async, but then discuss them in person to understand if people actually understand what they are talking about. So far I also have a good time with re…

No thanks, I really don't see the benefit of face to face discussions. Just don't hire AI bros, problem solved. If you can't filter them out in the hiring process, maybe refactor the hiring process.

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#382

Post by ex-aws-dude »

futureproofd wrote: post #124

I've noticed early into AI adoption in the workplace that some colleagues took advantage of the technology by appearing to be hyper-proactive; New TODs weekly, fresh new refactoring ideas, novel ways to solve age-old problems with shiny new algorithms. Fast-forward to today, and this is occurring two-fold. Not only are they trying to appear more proactive, combining this with the fear of AI layoffs, they're creating…

That’s the thing, if you don’t use it someone else will

And it’s hard to argue against seemingly instant results

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#383

Post by yard2010 »

a34729t wrote: post #247
roncesvalles wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the bitter lessons I learned in my SWE career is that looking the part is almost everything. The meme boomer advice of "dress for the job you want, not the one you have" is remarkably true if you broaden the definition of "dress". Race, gender, lookism, age, everything matters in your career. Career progression gets easier just by being the right age, or being the right race (whatever that is at your company),…

Interestingly enough, a coworker recently told me that I likely don't have much room for advancement at my employer, given my race. He said look at the race of the people on the ladder above you (it's mostly one race), and then look at yourself. Also, being tall. Easiest way to identify management is height.

Honestly this brings tears to my eyes. It's like humans would never get past that obstacle and unlock the next level cooperation..

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#384

Post by wazHFsRy »

sevenzero wrote: post #381
wazHFsRy wrote: post #353

As everyone is an expert now[1] on paper I think it is unfortunately time for a shift again. For years I was big proponent of asynchronous remote work. But it seems like the only reasonable way forward is to discuss things face to face. I still prefer to prepare things async, but then discuss them in person to understand if people actually understand what they are talking about. So far I also have a good time with re…

No thanks, I really don't see the benefit of face to face discussions. Just don't hire AI bros, problem solved. If you can't filter them out in the hiring process, maybe refactor the hiring process.

I mean I agree with you, but the reality for many of us is that this is not under our control?

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#385

Post by wazHFsRy »

aryehof wrote: post #369
wazHFsRy wrote: post #353

As everyone is an expert now[1] on paper I think it is unfortunately time for a shift again. For years I was big proponent of asynchronous remote work. But it seems like the only reasonable way forward is to discuss things face to face. I still prefer to prepare things async, but then discuss them in person to understand if people actually understand what they are talking about. So far I also have a good time with re…

I like the idea of face-to-face discussions. My only fear is that many of the new generation will say they really prefer that we text or slack instead.

That is something I actually have not noticed, do you get pushback like this?

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#386

Post by methyl »

beachy wrote: post #230
Animats wrote: post #215

The OP has an amusing side point - LLMs have automated sucking up to management. There is a large market for that. His main point, though, is this: I have a colleague ... who spent two months earlier this year building a system that should have been designed by someone with formal training in data architecture. He used the tools well, by the standards by which use of the tools is currently measured. He produced a gre…

My friend built a construction management SaaS entirely via Claude. It looked damned impressive, and it kind of worked to demo, but he is in no way a programmer, though he understood the problem domain very well. I asked a few basic questions: - where is the data stored? - How would you recover from a database failure? - does it consume tokens at runtime? - what is the runtime used at the back end? - why are the web…

Perhaps the author of the code and architecture (Claude) should receive those questions.

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#387

Post by aryehof »

futureproofd wrote: post #124

I've noticed early into AI adoption in the workplace that some colleagues took advantage of the technology by appearing to be hyper-proactive; New TODs weekly, fresh new refactoring ideas, novel ways to solve age-old problems with shiny new algorithms. Fast-forward to today, and this is occurring two-fold. Not only are they trying to appear more proactive, combining this with the fear of AI layoffs, they're creating…

TOD - Transfer on Death?

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#388

Post by sevenzero »

wazHFsRy wrote: post #384
sevenzero wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No thanks, I really don't see the benefit of face to face discussions. Just don't hire AI bros, problem solved. If you can't filter them out in the hiring process, maybe refactor the hiring process.

I mean I agree with you, but the reality for many of us is that this is not under our control?

Yea absolutely, but can't you talk to the people responsible for hiring? Seems like a thing that should be communicated within the company as it really disrupts things.

Given that a lot of you do not have impact on hiring decisions I'd sign your face to face point, despite me not understanding the benefit of seeing if someone actually has the expertise, as most likely you also wont be able to unhire them.

Can't we solve this by just having on-site interviews?

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#389

Post by 2001zhaozhao »

Finally someone who nailed this problem. In the age of AI you need smart people who are aligned with the organization more than ever.

If people aren't aligned with the organization then bad, BAD things happen when the political people get access to AI and there's basically nothing you can do about it. They can use AI to fake things for a very extended time, then always find the most optimal way to cover up the problem before the consequences surface and at that point they've already moved so far up the ladder that the consequences don't matter to them anymore. IMO I think it's actively unsolvable in any org that is already deeply infested with politics.

On the other hand, having really smart people has massively increased in value. The only way to surface them is through naturally selecting on actual merit which only an entrepreneurship environment can reliably provide.

All of this means that I think startups with star teams are going to absolutely dominate for a few years (as in not just executing faster but with less bandwidth, but literally outright winning in everything) until near-full AI automation starts making the big firms win again simply by virtue of throwing tokens at the problem.

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#390

Post by amoss »

chao- wrote: post #135
Swizec wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Reminded me of when I had to be extra wordy to meet the 1000 minimum word limit for my high school essays. Minimum word lengths are the greatest dis-service high school and college have ever done to future communication skills. It takes years for people to unlearn this in the workplace. Max word counts only please. Especially now with AI making it so easy to produce fluff with no signal.

I write the words that I hear in my head, as though I am speaking. With the exception of timed, in-class essays, I always turned in papers far in excess of any minimum during high school. In college, I took a constructive writing course because I thought "Hey, easy A!" After the second or third week, the professor told me that, while the class had a word minimum, I would also be given a separate word maximum . She sa…

feels like this comment could be shorter
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