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The Who Cares Era

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Re: The Who Cares Era

#731

Post by reaperducer »

sp0rk wrote: post #66
0_____0 wrote: post #5

I was just kvetching about this to my partner over breakfast. Not exactly, but a parallel observation, that a lot of people are just kind of shit at their jobs. The utility tech who turned my tiny gas leak into a larger gas leak and left. The buildings around me that take the better part of a decade to build (really? A parking garage takes six years?) Cops who have decided it's their job to do as little as possible.…

> There's a culture of indifference, an embrace of mediocrity. I don't think it's new, but I do think perhaps AI has given the lazy and prideless an even lower energy route to... I'm not sure. What is the goal? I think pride in work has declined a lot (at least in the US) because so many large employers have shown that they aren't even willing to pretend to care about their employees. It's difficult to take pride in…

I think pride in work has declined a lot (at least in the US) because so many large employers have shown that they aren't even willing to pretend to care about their employees.

A lot of companies, including mine, played this game for a long time. They were forever going on about how we're all a big family, and we all have to watch out for one another, and how's your mental health today? Do you need a hug? Here, have some free burritos.

Then COVID hit, and all that ended. They fired half of the staff in 10 hours, and since then have showed their real faces, because it's too soon for them to go back the other way. Everyone will know it's just a show.

Re: The Who Cares Era

#732

Post by nthingtohide »

greenavocado wrote: post #719
nthingtohide wrote: post #714

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as US Dollar supply was increasing at the rate of 2% per year (I don't know the exact rate but some predictable small rate) which is commensurate with Gold supply increase, everything was ok with the world, nobody cared whether it was USD or Gold. It is only when US started abusing this privilege that system started breaking.

The claim that the dollar system worked perfectly until the Fed got greedy is pure fantasy. The post-WWII Bretton Woods system wasn't a gold standard, it was a dollar hegemony masquerading as one, a rigged game where America played banker to the world while quietly running the printing press overtime. The U.S. promised dollars convertible to gold at $35 an ounce, but only for foreign governments, while internally, th…

Good points. I stand corrected.

Re: The Who Cares Era

#733

Post by nthingtohide »

greenavocado wrote: post #719
nthingtohide wrote: post #714

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as US Dollar supply was increasing at the rate of 2% per year (I don't know the exact rate but some predictable small rate) which is commensurate with Gold supply increase, everything was ok with the world, nobody cared whether it was USD or Gold. It is only when US started abusing this privilege that system started breaking.

The claim that the dollar system worked perfectly until the Fed got greedy is pure fantasy. The post-WWII Bretton Woods system wasn't a gold standard, it was a dollar hegemony masquerading as one, a rigged game where America played banker to the world while quietly running the printing press overtime. The U.S. promised dollars convertible to gold at $35 an ounce, but only for foreign governments, while internally, th…

I have question. If new value is produced in the system (say an iphone or google search), isn't it ok to produce more dollars to represent that value, which is also the reason why people didn't care for decades, because the system was working.

Re: The Who Cares Era

#734

Post by richardfontana »

0_____0 wrote: post #5

I was just kvetching about this to my partner over breakfast. Not exactly, but a parallel observation, that a lot of people are just kind of shit at their jobs. The utility tech who turned my tiny gas leak into a larger gas leak and left. The buildings around me that take the better part of a decade to build (really? A parking garage takes six years?) Cops who have decided it's their job to do as little as possible.…

> Where I live, it seems like half the streets don't have street signs (this isn't a backwater where you'd expect this, it's Boston).

This is a phenomenon in eastern Massachusetts that I've been hearing people talk about for ~25 years. I've heard it hypothesized as an attempt to be hostile to outsiders.

Re: The Who Cares Era

#735

Post by try_the_bass »

danans wrote: post #697
0_____0 wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the private sector, the burden of a shirking employee is borne by owners, investors, shareholders. In the public sector, the weight is borne by our collective dollars, and shirking represents money that could have gone into a playground, better wayfinding infra, curb cuts... We necessarily have a stake in what our governments do, therefore the expectations of the public are different vs. the private sector.

> the burden of a shirking employee Who says they are shirking? Perhaps they are working really efficiently, and doing their job in 1/4 the time.

Who says we're measuring output in time spent?

Re: The Who Cares Era

#736

Post by creer »

ponector wrote: post #715
creer wrote: post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's possible to do both: you can collect your paycheck WHILE looking for a better job (because this one is toxic). And now you know to interview more seriously the people at that potential new employer. An essential part of "the job" is to get done what the company wants you to do. Even when that's stupid. Fair. But toxic jobs are still toxic to us, and staying is still our decision. Pending finding another better j…

But you never know what is the new team untill you started your work. No one will tell you during recruitment process about shit show they have or crazy manager. Or even if there was a nice team you've been interviewed to, after onboarding you could be reassigned to the toxic team to fix legacy code.

Never? There are companies that don't tell which team you will work with, or even what you will do. From what I hear, this is such a minority that they stand out. But it's true that Google's example might make this more common as we go. Most companies still try to interview for a good match with the team you will work with. Meaning, interviewing with them.

(To be fair and for background, Google did not invent this - but perhaps pushed it much further than it was before. For example some variations of this at Wall Street firms in the 70s?)

Re: The Who Cares Era

#737

Post by insane_dreamer »

gilbetron wrote: post #347

The future is gone. I'm in my 50s, and for nearly all of that time I thought, dreamt, and worked towards a future that I read about, researched, talked to others about, and consumed media about. But over the past several years I realize it is gone. I thought maybe it was just my age, but it seems like the world is doing the same, so maybe not my age. Another thread mentions that no one talks about "life in the 22nd c…

Agreed. There is plenty of technological progress, but so little of it is really in service to humanity or making our lives better.

Sure, AI can make us more productive (those of us it doesn't replace), but so what? That just means that my company can either a) produce more and generate more revenue, or b) produce the same with fewer employees, reducing costs. Either way, it doesn't make my life better.

The problem is that technology is for the most part, not about making our lives better. It's about finding new markets and convincing consumers to buy/use these products.

They say productivity has doubled in the past 40 years. Are we either 1) working half as many hours as we did then; or 2) earning twice as much (inflation-adjusted) as we did then? If not, then what has the increased productivity earned us?

Re: The Who Cares Era

#738

Post by nec4b »

saubeidl wrote: post #644
WalterBright wrote: post #622

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need bricks to make a house. Where are you going to get the bricks from? You need lumber to build a stick frame house. How are you going to saw the lumber? Where are you getting the steel for the saws? Where are you getting the nails from? Those all come from economic powerhouses. The steps from mud huts to modern buildings came from economic powerhouses.

All of those were made in highly industrialized Yugoslavia. Maybe they are an economic powerhouse by your definition then?

Only some parts were industrialized. Most of the the best companies were existing before Yugoslavia. They were nationalized after the revolution, the owners killed or they escaped to the west. Very little new industry was developed by the regime itself.

Re: The Who Cares Era

#739

Post by alphazard »

carlosjobim wrote: post #535
alphazard wrote: post #491

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is largely a consequence of the economic opportunities presented to people at work. There is basically no organization that will pay you more as a direct consequence of being better at your job. Compensation is almost never tied to performance, and is in practice most closely tied to age. Compensation isn't adjusted quickly enough for people to associate it with the quality of their work. A yearly meeting where…

> There is basically no organization that will pay you more as a direct consequence of being better at your job. Sure there is, that organization is called having your own business, or consulting.

Yes, this is the obvious exception, and good career advice. But it doesn't solve the problem for the consumers, which is that important services are done poorly or not at all. Not everyone can work for themselves, and if you want the people who collect a salary to do a good job, the incentives need to come from compensation.

Re: The Who Cares Era

#740

Post by thefringthing »

const_cast wrote: post #539
palmotea wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> There's a culture of indifference, an embrace of mediocrity. I don't think it's new, but I do think perhaps AI has given the lazy and prideless an even lower energy route to... I'm not sure. What is the goal? > I think pride in work has declined a lot (at least in the US) because so many large employers have shown that they aren't even willing to pretend to care about their employees. It's difficult to take pride…

Most workers have learned that going above and beyond almost always backfires. Employers don't value long-term employment relationships, so working hard just results in you raising the bar for yourself, with no benefit. A lot of these people were once starry-eyed highschoolers and college students who got burned too many times. They put in the time, the effort, the blood, sweat and tears, and what did they get? No th…

> They put in the time, the effort, the blood, sweat and tears, and what did they get? No thank you, just more work.

Don't be ridiculous. They got a pizza party and $20 gift card to a mall store.

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