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The Machine Fired Me

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Re: The Machine Fired Me

#301

Post by krapp »

inimino wrote: post #92
krapp wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe, but the humans who didn't renew his employment status knew how the system worked. They screwed up more.

They screwed up, but that happens. The point where the system takes over and even the higher-ups can't override it is where the story becomes Kafka-esque. If you build an automation system that goes out of human control after a human error, that is a failed design.

>If you build an automation system that goes out of human control after a human error, that is a failed design.

Unless it was designed with the intent that human intervention should be impossible once a process was started. That would make it a very poor design, but not a failed one.

I've seen lots of internal software that doesn't have failsafes or rollbacks - the operator is simply trained to follow procedure and then is expected to follow it. Software that considers operator error is more complex, and therefore more expensive, to produce. Cost often supersedes quality or flexibility when these systems are developed.

Re: The Machine Fired Me

#303

Post by cannam »

drewg123 wrote: post #11

I had a somewhat similar, but much less serious experience at Google. I resigned just after I had gotten a promotion, but before the date when the promo was effective. Much to my surprise, the resignation (slated to be effective after the promo) somehow cancelled the promo via some automated system. However, a promo at Google is a huge deal. I really wanted the promotion to go through, so that I would have that level…

What is "go/epitaphs"?

Re: The Machine Fired Me

#304

Post by jexah »

teekert wrote: post #243
ReverseCold wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay this example makes sense. No prescription == no drugs (especially for painkillers and other things that people abuse). If you think this is a bad thing, then it's an organizational problem and has nothing to do with computers.

If you are a human and you can see in the computer that the prescription is regularly updated and you can even call the doctor if you doubted it. You can even check the prescription afterwards and if my story doesn't check out, do something about it. The migraine was pretty bad, imo it was like not treating a broken leg because of a missing insurance card or something.

You're really blaming the wrong people. Blame the doctor for screwing it up, your wife for not checking the prescription, or the government for creating/enforcing the relevant laws that would have put not only the chemist but their entire franchise underground for "doing the right thing". Laws are laws, broskie, don't expect everybody to break them for you.

If the migraine was really bad (bad enough to cause tangible damage) maybe you should sue the doctor for damages, or if it wasn't that bad, report him/her and go somewhere else next time.

Re: The Machine Fired Me

#305

Post by pbhjpbhj »

ubernostrum wrote: post #166
crooked-v wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He was fired. It doesn't matter that people didn't intend for him to be, he was, it went through the system, it was a done deal. Paying people not in your employ is fraud, even under the best of intentions. Somebody who is in your building, is doing work under your direction, and has not been told they are fired hasn't been fired. A judge in court for the lost wages would laugh you out of the room if you tried a "w…

Somebody who is in your building, is doing work under your direction, and has not been told they are fired hasn't been fired. They might be, or might not be. Constructive dismissal is a thing.

No, being fired is when a person with authority tells you you're dismissed; it's an active and explicit form of dismissal.

Constructive dismissal is dismissal, for all intents and purposes, without being fired.

Re: The Machine Fired Me

#306

Post by kbart »

chii wrote: post #206
romwell wrote: post #44

I have a story in a similar vein, although a much less scary one. In that instance, The Machine Cleaned Out My Desk. I had a cubicle at the company HQ, but was for some period of time working from home in another state. I still kept quite a few things in the cubicle (notebooks, mugs, etc), which I used when I was in the area. When I finally came back, I noticed, after a month or two, that my office number has not bee…

> automating even the simplest procedures can be very tricky automating business processes is actually a similar activity to doing programming! When it's done competently, the business runs smoother. But if there are bugs (and as anyone who programs knows, there are always bugs), things go wrong. And yet, people who know not anything about complex systems design attempt to write up business requirements for such auto…

Yes, you can actually program a bussines process using BPMN. Furthermore, there are tools that convert BPMN to the actual machine code automatically.

Re: The Machine Fired Me

#307

Post by bewo001 »

hugi wrote: post #278
bonyt wrote: post #161

This is literally an episode of Better Off Ted.[1] In it, the titular Ted is inadvertenly deleted from the company system when trying to correct a misspelling of his last name. Eventually, he is forced to interview for his own job as the system had already put out an ad for his replacement. I think the most striking part of it, and of the true story from the post, is the human factor - the idea that the humans involv…

Recently we had a lot of tourists drive through the unfinished tunnel Vaðlaheiðargöng (Iceland) because Apple Maps already marked it as part of Route 1. So we had people drive a workers' road past multiple signs banning entrance, and then drive on gravel through a tunnel filled with heavy machinery and workers. Quite funny.

Well, Iceland has a lot of gravel roads so they might assume that this is normal..

Re: The Machine Fired Me

#308

Post by kbart »

macca321 wrote: post #279
gambiting wrote: post #256

" I had missed 3 weeks of work by that time, and pay." The what now? I can only assume this is in US, because in EU he would be 100000% entitled to pay for every single minute of this going on.

Maybe not if he is a Contractor.

Even in such case contract usually has a clause about premature termination and related compensation.

Re: The Machine Fired Me

#309

Post by pbhjpbhj »

Rjevski wrote: post #289
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't there a problem with shadow contrast which makes features more difficult to pick out on darker skinned faces? I vaguely recall an East Asian developer giving that reason for why he developed on Western data-sets.

Most likely it’s an issue with contrast and overall darker skin colour. Can be solved by illuminating the face with IR though, which should work across all ethnicities.

Yes, but then you need special equipment rather than standard cameras (that usually filter IR); which would prove the point that it's about physical limitations rather than racism.

Re: The Machine Fired Me

#310

Post by jacobush »

gaius wrote: post #212
romwell wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A paper/protocol machine is still a machine, though. Sucks that it ate your headphones!

I am normally big on Solidarity with fellow Workers but the humans in this loop really should be automated away, because they knew what they were doing was a mistake and did it anyway, so what value were they adding? In fact they were worse than automation because at least that can be debugged, but there is no fix for the bureaucratic mindset. Especially since you could tell them to stop and they would say "yes" and…

I think the moral of the grand OP story was the automated aspects of that machine only enhanced the human actors tendencies to just follow through.
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