Spend the day talking to workers council members about "AI".
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@GhostOnTheHalfShell @tante You’re describing an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) and when they don’t work out it’s ugly. All your eggs in one basket, etc.
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@glyph the amount of times where I asked a CEO/CTO about their "AI" project and how they actually measure cost or what their measurable criteria for success are and only got someone looking at me as if I was speaking in tongues is really scary.
Like: Isn't turning everything into metrics and measurements in order to make data driven decisions what management is supposed to do?
that's the story. they want us to believe it's not all ego and greed and vibe management. but ask for actual data and metrics that aren't just a pretty graphy unrelated to reality and they will likely get defensive.
don't question the emperor's new clothes. offer to design their next outfit...
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Which was really fucked up to see: These folks actually want to protect their organizations from burning a lot of resources on bullshit instead of fixing actual problems that help the workers _and_ the organization. And they have to actively fight management who got their brains ruined on linkedin.
@tante Oddly enough, I don't even think I find this truly unusual. Nonsense management is common. Some company cultures amplify it. I'll be curious about the post-mortem on this bubble...
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Spend the day talking to workers council members about "AI". And it's kinda wild hearing their stories from the wild: Management is 100% in fantasy "AI" can do everything land and makes huge plans for how to use "AI" to cut workers when real projects that supposedly can do 50% of a specific task end up being able to do 8%. And they still go live. It's fucking bonkers. CEO's are really not okay.
@tante A friend of mine works at a company with ~30,000 employees in a division comprised primarily of subject matter experts, each with their own specialization. Their AI usage is tracked and every week they sit through three hours of meetings pushing them to use more AI. Despite this their entire division of a couple thousand employees being forbidden from using AI in their work due to intellectual property concerns. When they have called out the conflict, they are told to use it to make their administrative tasks more efficient despite those tasks consuming a small fraction of their time.
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Spend the day talking to workers council members about "AI". And it's kinda wild hearing their stories from the wild: Management is 100% in fantasy "AI" can do everything land and makes huge plans for how to use "AI" to cut workers when real projects that supposedly can do 50% of a specific task end up being able to do 8%. And they still go live. It's fucking bonkers. CEO's are really not okay.
@tante The entire tech sector is run by idiots who are convinced that they’re geniuses. As far as I’m concerned, there’s only one solution for this.
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But it was super fun to lead them through a "this is how you can force reasonable evaluation on 'AI' projects which kills most of them" framework and see how they felt empowered and able to actually do their job again.
@tante My partner is trying (often in vain) to have this type conversation with her supervisor and other colleagues who have succumbed to the siren song of AI.
I gather she hasn’t been too successful for the moment, but she isn’t alone. Perhaps she and some of her like-minded colleagues will be able to coordinate their efforts to concentrate on the project evaluation angle that you suggest.
At any rate, thank you for sharing your experience!
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@otherdog @tante I guess I'll drop the link again just for reference if you haven't seen it, I didn't do so above because I feel like I post this every single day now to the point where the self-promotion feels shameful. but it remains painfully, almost nauseatingly relevant, so, here you go https://blog.glyph.im/2025/08/futzing-fraction.html
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But it was super fun to lead them through a "this is how you can force reasonable evaluation on 'AI' projects which kills most of them" framework and see how they felt empowered and able to actually do their job again.
@tante
Thanks for your work in this matter and for sharing it! It's important.Can you point me in a direction where I can learn more about the framework you're describing or the foundations below?
I also try to keep my organization sane and unfortunately I don't seem to be successful in that regard.
Edit: Just read you don't have your framework fully formalized/written down yet and I definitely understand time is scarce, thanks for what you already shared.
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But it was super fun to lead them through a "this is how you can force reasonable evaluation on 'AI' projects which kills most of them" framework and see how they felt empowered and able to actually do their job again.
@tante is this framework available somewhere? I'd like to use it in my org
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@SnoopJ @aud @tante there so many people who are really, actually offering incentives and bonuses for *token use* though. Like it's not just a thing that is happening somewhere, it seems to be one of the more *common* mechanisms.
I was sure when I first heard about this that it must be some kind of self-dealing kickback scam? But as far as I can tell… no? It's just a thing that managers *actually* think is a good idea? Literally incentivizing direct waste by employees
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A anderslund@expressional.social shared this topic
