I work on a team that makes a product for actual customers. They tell us what they want and we do it :)
How many of you know that the team is working on something that no-one wants?
111–120 of 428 posts
Re: How many of you know that the team is working on something that no-one wants?
#112> Don't just build Something™, build an industry leading product that customers want and love! The point of writing software is to get paid. If the process leads to something actually useful, good on you. If not, you still got paid. It was just a drill, life continues.
That is highly subjective. Money is a motivation but some people seeks more from their jobs. I wouldn't work on a job if it is not really giving me a sense of accomplishment either.
Oh no, not subjectivity!
Re: How many of you know that the team is working on something that no-one wants?
#113Obviously using a throwaway here. Our board members got it into their heads that successful companies must have an AI "play", so they instructed the CEO to invest about 10% of our development budget on AI. We are doing absolutely inane projects that have no hope of succeeding. We serve a niche industry where certified professionals have to do certain tasks personally, instead of being able to delegate to secretaries.…
Oh boi does this hit hard as a engineer that recently got hired as a part of the AI/automation team on a startup, that few month in got told by the boss that "we need a AI team because we promised the investors. Investors are not interested in tech without AI baked in". Whelp.
Re: How many of you know that the team is working on something that no-one wants?
#114Obviously using a throwaway here. Our board members got it into their heads that successful companies must have an AI "play", so they instructed the CEO to invest about 10% of our development budget on AI. We are doing absolutely inane projects that have no hope of succeeding. We serve a niche industry where certified professionals have to do certain tasks personally, instead of being able to delegate to secretaries.…
I wish I knew the details of the project; getting to mess around with new technologies for a year and no strict deliverables is a great position to be in. Worst case, you got to learn some new tech and pad your resume for your next job.
Re: How many of you know that the team is working on something that no-one wants?
#115Obviously using a throwaway here. Our board members got it into their heads that successful companies must have an AI "play", so they instructed the CEO to invest about 10% of our development budget on AI. We are doing absolutely inane projects that have no hope of succeeding. We serve a niche industry where certified professionals have to do certain tasks personally, instead of being able to delegate to secretaries.…
what about human augmented ai? that is what successful ai companies use
Yeah exactly, the play here is to make AI assistants to human decision makers.
Re: How many of you know that the team is working on something that no-one wants?
#116I haven't finished the articles first paragraph because I can't stop laughing when I read the title - it's too true
Re: How many of you know that the team is working on something that no-one wants?
#117IMO, that's the biggest sign that your job's not going to last very long.
I remember partial involvement in a major feature that I thought was kind of lame; but it pulled in quite a few engineers and was a major deliverable. I thought to myself, "huh, I guess customers will actually pay for this?"
Then later I found out that no one actually bought the feature.
Re: How many of you know that the team is working on something that no-one wants?
#118The problem is that software no-one wants often has the best careers. I worked on a system used by many people and it was hard work, was getting 10-15 years old, held together with tape and lots of users who all had their gripes and requests. I moved to a system hardly used by anyone and life is so much better. Get to play with interesting technology and no one minds because there is now risk of annoying a our users…
What area? I've mostly quit software because of how much I hate working on complete garbage and also don't have the schooling/engineering skills to work on truly cool stuff. Pivoted to wood working.
Funny, I know a guy who was did woodworking (and construction) that pivoted to software.
I worked with him on a consulting project used by nearly 30 million people, great dude and great experience.
On the other hand, I didn't have an engineering degree, and worked on software for a major bank, and then a consulting company where I worked with ex-construction worker.
I found a gig on a team at another company where I make 40% more. The team I work on has zero real customers at this point, and we're doing real interesting stuff. We plan on converting our customer base over to the work my team has done, but that's still in the works.
Anyway, I think schooling isn't as important as people may think. You can learn some really cool and cutting edge things if you put your mind to it. And if those skills are marketable (not necessarily valuable, although companies might think so), you can get jobs utilizing those skills.
Tinkering with the tech you're interested in can be a good way to get into a position working on that piece of tech. It might not always work out, but it's worth a shot if you really want a fulfilling and interesting job in that area.
Re: How many of you know that the team is working on something that no-one wants?
#119Don't want this to turn into a big politics tangent, but I've thought that one use case for a tech workers union is to be able to push back against questionable business decisions from management. I've seen places where engineers and other ICs, some team leads and managers, those with far more experience and clout at me, voice skepticism against questionable product decisions coming from upper management, only to rec…
Imagine if your tech guild had the power to promote tech priorities over business concerns, and drive the company out of business.
If your tech team is better than management at running the business, quit and form a competitor.
Re: How many of you know that the team is working on something that no-one wants?
#120Obviously using a throwaway here. Our board members got it into their heads that successful companies must have an AI "play", so they instructed the CEO to invest about 10% of our development budget on AI. We are doing absolutely inane projects that have no hope of succeeding. We serve a niche industry where certified professionals have to do certain tasks personally, instead of being able to delegate to secretaries.…
Almost seems like menial work that your CEO might be using to gain a better foothold on gathering external investments. My experience with CEO's says that they aren't complete morons. I hope for your sake there is another valuable reason why he has you all doing this work.