it's hilarious to see some people here go on about how they're proud to work so that they can be replaced

I think too many just expect that they can get by like before because they're a 10x engineer or whatever

zamadatix 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I think I sit somewhere between these two descriptions. I've always supported unions and other "for the common good" type machinery. At the same time, I desperately also don't want to end up doing something the equivalent of barring the use of calculators just so I can toil away at a 9-5 crunching numbers more slowly instead. If AI really does replace all of the meaningful jobs we can do... great - I'd rather we make sure the spoils of that production are distributed than try to cling to preventing the technology from being used.

Inexplicably for the current moment, AI has so far actually meant I have even more to do instead of less. I expect that to change eventually... but man, is it a bit of whiplash to go from wondering if my job will be around in 10 years to starting the work day and being more backed up than ever. Doubly so since the rate of change does not seem to be very evenly distributed by tech role.

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oblio 2 hours ago | parent [-]

> I'd rather we make sure the spoils of that production are distributed than try to cling to preventing the technology from being used.

Spoiler alert: unions can help with that.

	▲	zamadatix an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Agreed, but I must've severely messed up my message if that was supposed to be a spoiler. To be clearer: I think the unions, economic policy, and such should help with that part rather than us wield the very same to hide from replacing the work we do with something much easier. I.e., don't be ashamed to work towards that, just come together to ensure we all share the spoils.

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embedding-shape 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> it's hilarious to see some people here go on about how they're proud to work so that they can be replaced

To be fair, most of us spent our entire career trying our best to automate ourselves away one way or another, and always seen that as our job description.

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12ags-18276 3 hours ago | parent [-]

No, that is just nerd heroism lore that indeed has always shown up in comments, that part is definitely true.

Some people dislike automation altogether and like the computational aspect. Most people seem to enjoy constructing virtual worlds and Rube Goldberg machines.

	▲	genericone 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I thought HN was mostly people who hated doing 'the thing' and would procrastinate until they build a system that does 'the thing' and then they would work tirelessly to never do 'the thing' themselves ever again.

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BeetleB 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Much of computing history has been about replacing humans. If they were proud of their work pre-LLMs, then at least they're being consistent!

It's kind of hypocritical to change just because it's now a different industry being impacted.

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qwytw 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What options do you have? If you're the 10x engineer you'll be a 100x one and do just fine. Otherwise what can you do besides holding on as long as you can or start searching for a new career.

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quaintdev 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It won't happen to me is what I used to think

	▲	georgemcbay 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> It won't happen to me is what I used to think In my experience this is what almost everyone thinks, right up to the point where it starts happening to them. And it isn't just an individual blind spot, organizations suffer from the same thing in the sense that many companies will be happy to automate away all their labor to avoid paying the "human tax" without giving much thought to the fact that the need for the company itself will also be automated away soon after. If you can replace nearly all of your workers with some cheap tokens and prompts, everyone else who previously would have been a customer can replace your whole company with the same thing.

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12ags-18276 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Many people who promoted DEI when their corporations demanded it were fired later.

Useful idiots always go first after the goal is accomplished.

	▲	3 hours ago \| parent [-]
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