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by codesuela 2247 days ago
This seems pretty easy to game for a software engineer:

1. Write code for the project and record mouse clicks and keystrokes

2. Replay keystrokes at .5 speed inside a mirrored VM

a more sophisticated tool could also vary speed and add typos.

6 comments

Agreed, and bring it on. If this becomes a thing then I'll run a platform you can outsource your busy time in a VM to. This sounds like a ton of fun TBH and makes me think of game automation. Evolving into a game of cat and mouse and giving me an excuse to spend more time messing w/ OpenAI.
This is how the AI takes over, we automate ourselves in silly ways. How do we know we aren't bots doing someone else's work?
Would it change anything if we knew we were? :)
Employer: your keystroke rate is low

Me: I'm thinking about if I should use a string here in c++

Employer: fair enough

Or just play a full screen slide show of various spreadsheets and documents. Will they really study the screenshots that closely to see the repetition?
Sure, spot-check and scrutize a small fraction.

(Not to say I endorse this means of tracking employees' time, I just don't think that's a big impediment to this method.)

In my experience employers only tend to look back at things like this once they have a “reason” and are trying to document/justify performance issues. Although I agree it doesn’t seem too far off to have a system that proactively analyzes the screenshots and alerts a manager when Facebook or gmail seems to be open a disproportionate amount of time.
Goodhart's law in action
Or hire a sidekick from India to slowly and circuitously type it all in.
Yes, those are possible to escape. I had few gigs and the spying was required. VM was a successful solution (not automated).