ElProlactin 6 hours ago

He's not wrong but I think there's something the "tech people" up in arms about AI aren't saying, which is this: a lot of "tech people" were indifferent or silent as tech "disrupted" other industries.

Taxis, mom-and-pop retail, newspapers, manufacturing. Millions of people pushed out of real jobs and into gig work. Companies breaking the rules and pushing established businesses to the brink with a mindset of "it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission".

Sure, there were some within the "tech community" who didn't like the effects, but the overall vibe was this is progress. There was a lot of arrogance about companies needing to adapt and people needing to reskill. "Teach your kids to speak Python".

And why would you complain if you were making $200,000+/year writing JS at a company selling dog food as a subscription?

Now tech is coming for the tech people and somehow it's really the end of the world.

  • dofm 2 hours ago

    Yeah. I have always been conscious of this gleeful “disruption” shit. An especially awful example was Bodega/Stockwell:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockwell_(company)

    This might have been the tipping point for disruptive startups.

    But the “your job is toast, that sucks, learn AI I guess” people are a little quieter now, because it’s becoming evident that it might be their colleagues first.