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Appearing productive in the workplace

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Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#311

Post by jimbokun »

zbentley wrote: post #205
LinuxAmbulance wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AI has made my work about 5-8x quicker, just because I'm able to have it cover a lot of the grunt work (update 42 if statements in 32 different files) that took time, but no particular skill. I think the use cases where AI makes an economic improvement to the status quo for a business are rare, but they do exist, and they can be a significant improvement. It's like the early days of the dotcom boom and bust - people…

Without getting into AI-for-work good or bad, > update 42 if statements in 32 different files is a silly behavior for a programmer or an AI to have to do more than twice. We have tools that very effectively remove the need for things like that: programming languages that allow modular and reusable code, good design, etc.

The AI needs to update the 42 statements to all use the same function so it can be updated in just one place going forward.

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#312

Post by jimbokun »

Pannoniae wrote: post #232
zbentley wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without getting into AI-for-work good or bad, > update 42 if statements in 32 different files is a silly behavior for a programmer or an AI to have to do more than twice. We have tools that very effectively remove the need for things like that: programming languages that allow modular and reusable code, good design, etc.

Ideally. But that requires the correct abstraction, requires keeping it up to date.... that's basically an unachievable ideal. You either have overabstraction/overengineering (most codebases) or you have repetition. Repetition is actually more preferable in the LLM-world because you have to keep less stuff in your head. And the LLM's head too. Even if something does look copypasted, it might actually be semantically…

LLMs are great at replacing repetition with an abstraction.

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#313

Post by jimbokun »

pmg101 wrote: post #75
funimpoded wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I increasingly see “AI” as a sort of virus tuned to target management, specifically. Its output is catnip to them, and it’s going to be unavoidable for those who want to look good to superiors and peers (i.e. the #1 priority for managers) even as it adds no actual value whatsoever to what they do. People under them, too, will have to start burning tokens on bullshit to satisfactorily perform competence and “doing wor…

I agree with everything you've said, but don't you think quite a lot of things have also been like this before, just to a lesser degree? I've often had the sense that most of what is done inside companies is a kind of performance of work rather than work itself. Mostly all a big status game between various different factions. All actual value provided by just a few engineers here and there who are able to shut out th…

Yes and this is why small startups can often beat them .

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#314

Post by jimbokun »

grvdrm wrote: post #191
pmg101 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with everything you've said, but don't you think quite a lot of things have also been like this before, just to a lesser degree? I've often had the sense that most of what is done inside companies is a kind of performance of work rather than work itself. Mostly all a big status game between various different factions. All actual value provided by just a few engineers here and there who are able to shut out th…

I often think that executive level work is about changing the executive team and writing memos about changing the executive team. Then there’s a different team with different members and they begin the cycle again. Repeat over and over again. The number of times I’ve seen a HTML memo sent from the assistant of the executive that says “from the desk of…” with babble about new leadership.

The rest of the work is inventing new ways to increase their compensation.

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#315

Post by jimbokun »

jiggawatts wrote: post #298
vannucci wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm wondering what this could mean to the future of software work and AI use, care to weight in? I don't have a good mental model for this period of time (I do agree with your sense of things).

A lot of people have already noticed that it's becoming cheaper to create bespoke software, as an alternative to paying a SaaS or purchasing off-the-shelf. An example is that instead of buying a cookie-cutter "MacMansion" like in the last century even individuals can afford a unique house designed by a professional architect. It may not be an award winning artistic design, but it won't be the same copy-paste design a…

> I did that in an hour while sitting in on an online meeting!

And they say meetings aren’t productive!

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#316

Post by jerkstate »

What credentials does this author have to cite social science research in their determination of the competency of other people? Their only other article is about eschewing native apps - why am I supposed to take their opinion about measuring competency seriously if they are a software engineer, not a psychologist? They are clearly outside of their domain of expertise and therefore incapable of producing work with any value whatsoever, according to their own arguments.

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#318

Post by bodegajed »

Great article. If the author is browsing HN please hear me out. They say the pen is mightier than the sword. However the reason on why is not clear but I believe that because it can change minds. This article after re-reading possible changed my mind to abandon agentic coding!

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#319

Post by g_delgado14 »

jerkstate wrote: post #316

What credentials does this author have to cite social science research in their determination of the competency of other people? Their only other article is about eschewing native apps - why am I supposed to take their opinion about measuring competency seriously if they are a software engineer, not a psychologist? They are clearly outside of their domain of expertise and therefore incapable of producing work with an…

How do you know this person isn’t at least somewhat well versed in the related fields? For all we know they have a double major?

Re: Appearing productive in the workplace

#320

Post by ethbr1 »

jimbokun wrote: post #305
wcfrobert wrote: post #42

> "Requirements documents that were once a page are now twelve. Status updates that were once three sentences are now bulleted summaries of bulleted summaries. Retrospective notes, post-incident reports, design memos, kickoff decks: every artifact that can be elongated is, by people who do not read what they produce, for readers who do not read what they receive." Great article. The "elongation" of workplace artifact…

I remember my first semester university writing class, when on the first day the teacher told us we had learned to pad our writing in high school, and now we were going to learn how to be short and concise because every assignment would be limited to one page.

I had a "Violence in the Political System" professor who only assigned executive summary research assignments. No more than one page.

His explanation: I don't want to read more than that, and you should be able to fit all the most important details in one page.

Great lesson.

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