Pixietown

soooo... my employer has gone "all-in" on "AI" development and has a mandate that all work be done "AI-first"

needless to say, I am ... not buying this

I've been at this job for nine years and seen a lot of really stupid shit (including being forced to do all my work on a windows laptop ~6mo ago) but this is the thing has pushed me over the line; I've stayed at this job because I was able (within limits) to do my best work, and now I'm being told I need to do work that is worse than that

no

I'm looking around for options; got a few job applications out, but if you're hiring for Clojure work (or, somehow, Lua???) let me know

I have a lot of friends who have been looking for work for a long time and finding basically nothing, so I get that this is a bad time to do this, but I just can't stay with things going like that

https://technomancy.us/resume

edit: found a job now, thanks for your support

I've been more or less stalling for a couple weeks since this policy was announced; just dragging my feet and smiling and nodding, implying that yes, eventually I'd get around to installing clod as per the new requirements

but today I had a meeting with my manager where she asked me directly and there was no more dancing around it, so I told her straight out that was never going to happen

so... we'll see how serious they are about this! but even if they don't get rid of me and grant me an exception, I can't handle it being everywhere around me and suffocating me

@technomancy I do not understand this approach. I don't think managers should mandate any individual productivity tools. Measure people on their output, not their internal methods!

@ehashman yeah, I mean taken as a rational method towards the goal of writing software that works, it makes no sense

but it's pretty obvious it's just a cover story; the real goal is to project the image of having a company that is "cutting-edge" and innovative so that the CTO can get invited to all the cool silicon valley parties

whether the code being produced is any good never really factors into it at all

if it was any good, you wouldn't have to beg people to use it!

@technomancy well I suppose there's always malicious compliance ("I installed it, look" and just happened to forget to turn it on oopsie)

@ehashman if I were in a more precarious situation, yeah

I have played thru some scenarios in my head of how to fake it, but I just paid off my house and my spouse has a path to healthcare that could work for both of us, so I am fortunate enough to not have to play that game

@technomancy @ehashman

congrats on the house i guess

I kinda doubt they will fire you unless you specifically try to get fired. Just telling them that you wont be using LLMs, but you will continue to do work, probably wont be enough

I think despite the layers of ignorance and social hierarchy performance, the people who make these decisions in software companies still kinda know not to mess with Scruffy the Janitor.

The company I work for is sort of on a similar track, I just don't have the same ability to walk whenever I want to.