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What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

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Re: What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

#141

Post by Moto7451 »

galaxyLogic wrote: post #125

So a lot of people might lose their jobs because of AI, right? But the same amount of economic output, probably more, will be produced because of AI. By whom will that output then be consumed? If people don't have jobs they don't have money to buy and therefore ... prices will have to come down! Society as a whole will be better off because there is more output, better quality output. Then it's for us to vote in a go…

Yes-Anding you, if one developer is suddenly 3x more productive and does 40 hours of work in 15 with AI tools, any reasonable manager would still want the same three people to keep working at 3x productivity.

I don’t see Keynes’ theory we would all be working drastically fewer hours per week suddenly materializing due to AI. As always we’re just going to try to output more in the same time. The fact I, a manager, can “vibe code” some bugs away between meetings does not mean I will benefit from having one less dedicated engineer.

Re: What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

#142

Post by ryandrake »

jazzpush2 wrote: post #132
raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really wish this entire romanticism of the good old days when people only got into computer science because they breathed ate and dreamed about computers would die. It was never reality - I graduated in 1996 and have worked at 10 jobs everything from lifestyle companies, to startups, to boring old enterprise to BigTech and now consulting companies. To a tee everyone has treated it like a job and not some religious…

That's just your experience, though. It reflects mine, before I went to elite companies, where it is quite normal for people to live-and-breath software, at almost all hours.

This is never normal, and should not be normalized.

Re: What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

#143

Post by raw_anon_1111 »

jazzpush2 wrote: post #132
raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really wish this entire romanticism of the good old days when people only got into computer science because they breathed ate and dreamed about computers would die. It was never reality - I graduated in 1996 and have worked at 10 jobs everything from lifestyle companies, to startups, to boring old enterprise to BigTech and now consulting companies. To a tee everyone has treated it like a job and not some religious…

That's just your experience, though. It reflects mine, before I went to elite companies, where it is quite normal for people to live-and-breath software, at almost all hours.

And by definition most developers don’t work at “elite” companies. I hope you don’t call your average FAANG and adjacent “elite”.

And if you think that is normal, it’s honestly kind of sad.

Re: What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

#144

Post by whatever1 »

Specialized shoemakers lost their jobs to generic shoe factory workers but there is more shoe consumption than ever before in history.

LLMs like manufacturing will multiply the coding throughput. Likely the mythical 10x swe will not be as valuable, but the work expectation from anyone in the field will just multiply.

Re: What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

#146

Post by bryanrasmussen »

galaxyLogic wrote: post #125

So a lot of people might lose their jobs because of AI, right? But the same amount of economic output, probably more, will be produced because of AI. By whom will that output then be consumed? If people don't have jobs they don't have money to buy and therefore ... prices will have to come down! Society as a whole will be better off because there is more output, better quality output. Then it's for us to vote in a go…

>better quality output.

that doesn't seem to follow necessarily.

Re: What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

#147

Post by throwuxiytayq »

SequoiaHope wrote: post #129
galaxyLogic wrote: post #125

So a lot of people might lose their jobs because of AI, right? But the same amount of economic output, probably more, will be produced because of AI. By whom will that output then be consumed? If people don't have jobs they don't have money to buy and therefore ... prices will have to come down! Society as a whole will be better off because there is more output, better quality output. Then it's for us to vote in a go…

I agree completely, but you forget that another option is that the powerful will use these tools to make us suffer and we will be powerless to stop them.

Well, we could vote. In some parts of the world, at least.

Re: What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

#148

Post by zarzavat »

galaxyLogic wrote: post #125

So a lot of people might lose their jobs because of AI, right? But the same amount of economic output, probably more, will be produced because of AI. By whom will that output then be consumed? If people don't have jobs they don't have money to buy and therefore ... prices will have to come down! Society as a whole will be better off because there is more output, better quality output. Then it's for us to vote in a go…

> prices will have to come down

Prices of services will come down. Prices of things that require natural resources will go up.

In a hypothetical world where let's say we have AIs that can do any human job more effectively than a human, rich people who can afford to control the AIs will control society and poor people who have nothing to offer economically will live in poverty.

A good proxy for our future is Angola: an upper class who got rich off the oil boom, and a lower class who is dirt poor because they have nothing to offer the oil industry.

Re: What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

#149

Post by ghufran_syed »

fnordpiglet wrote: post #127
galaxyLogic wrote: post #125

So a lot of people might lose their jobs because of AI, right? But the same amount of economic output, probably more, will be produced because of AI. By whom will that output then be consumed? If people don't have jobs they don't have money to buy and therefore ... prices will have to come down! Society as a whole will be better off because there is more output, better quality output. Then it's for us to vote in a go…

Because in modern society we equate toil with morality we will toil on ever more meaningless crap tasks for food coupons for food that costs nothing to produce but is withheld through artificial scarcity to ensure meaningless toil occupies our existence because of a philosophy from the 1700’s.

I look forward to seeing your company actually producing and selling food for “next to nothing”, given how easy it apparently is

Re: What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

#150

Post by bumblehean »

jazzpush2 wrote: post #132
raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really wish this entire romanticism of the good old days when people only got into computer science because they breathed ate and dreamed about computers would die. It was never reality - I graduated in 1996 and have worked at 10 jobs everything from lifestyle companies, to startups, to boring old enterprise to BigTech and now consulting companies. To a tee everyone has treated it like a job and not some religious…

That's just your experience, though. It reflects mine, before I went to elite companies, where it is quite normal for people to live-and-breath software, at almost all hours.

>before I went to elite companies, where it is quite normal for people to live-and-breath software, at almost all hours.

Honest question: Do they actually _want_ to live-and-breathe software, or do they work in a highly competitive and highly compensated environment where doing that is implicitly required?

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