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by mglz 632 days ago
The "AI will automate it and we can let go of knowledgeable humans" requires a very naive and sinister mindset, which seems widespread among so called leadership roles. If you ask yourself how a rational person could make such a overcommitment to an unproven technology, the answer is: They are not being rational.

Why are they in leadership roles? No clue.
5 comments
klabb3 632 days ago
> AI will automate it and we can let go of knowledgeable humans

I used to be upset when people said these things based on pressing a button and watching a computer generate a word salad like a slot machine hitting the jackpot. Until I realized that it’s not a statement about the machine, it’s a statement about themselves. They can’t distinguish between competent people and confident sounding and well-formatted regurgitation. Which is especially concerning from leaders, who really should be able to weed out imposters.

Now, AI may make more leaps quickly that changes the equation. But anyone with an ounce of experience in the tech world knows to not take optimistic extrapolations at face value.

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xkqd 632 days ago
> Why are they in leadership roles?

Because they’re useful to the bottom line and are anti-social enough to destroy anyone who threatens it.

People and moreover mentality like this should not exist in our society, yet we incentivize for it.

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n_ary 632 days ago
Leaderships always have golden parachute when things come crashing. Regardless of the long term consequences or outcome, they will always win or move onto next thing before the dues arrive.

Also, why can't we replace the leadership with AI? We have more books on management than actual technical knowledge. We can use AI to make similar decisions these leaders make at like what billion times less cost.

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consteval 632 days ago
> Why are they in leadership roles? No clue

Because, IMO, there's a large overlap between being an irrational person and also being likable and smart sounding.

Confidence doesn't actually come from being good, it comes from being delusional. In order to truly market yourself you need a healthy disdain for the truth. You spit on reality and create your own.

Engineers and other rational-minded people have a big problem - they're too honest. They do feasibly analysis, they look at risks, they talk about weaknesses, pros and cons. But this doesn't strike confidence, quite the opposite - it makes the business folk weary. Why go with you, who estimates 10% chance of failure, when they can go with Mark, who says it's guaranteed to work?

Extrapolate that across all decisions and boom, the people at the top are usually the most irrational. It doesn't really matter that it's all a lie because when everyone walks out of that boardroom, they feel comforted.

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zeptian 632 days ago
the wet-dream of management is to get rid of high-paid knowledge workers. Now, chatGPT is the answer to their prayers, or, so they think.
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