I got a call from someone I don't know.
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@stefano 🤯 it's amazing (by which I mean worrying) how many people seem to think they can absolve themselves of any responsibility by using AI.
I don't understand why anyone would just let AI loose on a production system like that, and even blame AI for not taking backups. Although why was it not being backed up anyway?
I wonder how much more money they will waste in tokens rather than pay a professional to fix the mess.
@teapot_ben @stefano the abrogation responsibility seems the main selling point imho -
@82mhz Maybe I should
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@stefano Almost my entire income is unfucking bad AI nonsense, much of it starts like this story.
And it almost always comes with a phase in the negotiations where they beg me to reduce my rates because they have already spent so much money on AI.
But that isn't my fault, nor my problem.
Never been told off like this though.
This AI crap is almost enough to make me consider going back into consulting.
The power in any negotiation goes to the person most willing to walk away. Companies trashed by AI cannot walk away.
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@subnetspider @slothrop @stefano I've been pkg(8) all the way in the modern era for prod, but not for dev. It is a bit of a garden rake to go to pkgbase generation when hacking src/ so I side-step it with traditional buildworld/installworld. Doing an intermediate pkgbase build is a significant time and disk space commitment otherwise so it's only worth doing when about to stage a release.
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@stefano apps and social networks have spawned a generation of people who think they shouldn’t have to pay for anything. Only they should make money not you.
@Ox1de @stefano Obscene sense of entitlement? Not new to this decade.
In the late 2000s, a certain UK ISP who I won't name -- they gave the distinct impression that they were hoping to see certain FreeBSD VM-related enhancements for free. They ghosted me after I presented them with w pretty standard consulting agreement. TANSTAAFL! TANSTAAFL!
What they wanted ended up getting done a few years later by another committer working for a corporate stakeholder, not I, though I ended up buying and reading a book by @david_chisnall during that time to prepare for the work that didn't happen on my watch.
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I got a call from someone I don't know.
"Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"
"Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."
"That much?"
Some silence.
"Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.
Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.
I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.
@stefano Sigh, I hope someone there gets fired for their decision. You are paying the expert for their knowledge and experience.
I work full time in IT and it is rare that I get asked to do after hours work on the side. Rates depends on what they ask, but it starts at $50 an hour Canadian and a minimum of four hours.
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@oxy @mwl @nuintari @stefano Cipolla is spinning in his grave. Trust Nicolas Taleb to commend the work, and it was @ludicity who pointed me at it.
Unfortunately, anyone genuinely on the psychological narcissistic spectrum cannot be so easily categorized as being more towards one of Cipolla's 4 points on the compass-like model. In that respect, more like Eric Berne (Games People Play) & Claude Steiner's (Scripts People Live) notions of the egogram. https://bonpote.com/en/the-5-basic-laws-of-human-stupidity/
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@teapot_ben @stefano the abrogation responsibility seems the main selling point imho
@oxy @stefano I still can't get over that statement: "It [the AI] didn't even make a backup before starting" as though it couldn't possibly be the admin's responsibility to make sure the system was backed up before making major changes, let alone letting an AI loose on it with full root permissions!
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I got a call from someone I don't know.
"Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"
"Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."
"That much?"
Some silence.
"Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.
Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.
I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.
@stefano Remind of this now classic cartoon
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I got a call from someone I don't know.
"Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"
"Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."
"That much?"
Some silence.
"Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.
Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.
I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.
@stefano And you didn't charge too much for the task—it was more suited for a miracle-working saint on steroids.
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@spacehobo @stefano Yeah, €500 plus time is a very reasonable price for a data recovery job.
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I got a call from someone I don't know.
"Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"
"Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."
"That much?"
Some silence.
"Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.
Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.
I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.
@stefano I think folks really have a lack of value for our profession because it's "computer skills".
It's the same attitude as "oh it's just plumbing" and before you know it you're knee deep in dirty water.
No matter how desperate we are for money, we must value our time. And like just get a plumber in.
We don't have to be good at everything. It's a chance to get to know folks and you never know the plumber might know a business that need your professional help.
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I got a call from someone I don't know.
"Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"
"Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."
"That much?"
Some silence.
"Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.
Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.
I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.
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@passwordsarehard4 @bob_zim @skua @wizbean @stefano I'm 100% LLM free for life. Saw the writing on the wall that this was all coming (among many other things) and said fuck that I'd rather live in a storage container than participate in this macabre circus. Least regrettable choice I have made thus far.
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I got a call from someone I don't know.
"Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"
"Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."
"That much?"
Some silence.
"Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.
Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.
I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.
@stefano somewhere, the BOFH is smiling
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I got a call from someone I don't know.
"Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"
"Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."
"That much?"
Some silence.
"Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.
Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.
I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.
I agree with the group here,@stefano. They did you a massive favor. You do not want this client. That nastiness at the end of the call is just their own unforeseen (by them ) consequences coming home to roost.
