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Comment by consp | Hacker News Reader

A table saw does not advertise to be a panacea which will make everyone obsolete.

You should ignore anyone who says that LLMs are a panacea that will make everyone obsolete.

Even if they're your boss? Remember that most people here are not independently wealthy, they're stuck answering to someone who may not have so level a take on these things as you do.

The problem there is the boss, not the technology. If it isn’t an insane take on AI, it’d be on something else, and eventually will be. People quit bad managers, not bad jobs. If you have a bad manager, work on quitting them.

I think the problem is the techno fascist oligarchs that are peddling the snake oil that LLMs will wipe out all white collar jobs tomorrow. Managers usually answer to C suite, and the C suite is salivating at the idea of laying off 80% of staff

>> Even if they're your boss?

Especially if they are your boss.

Your boss can't magic things into reality. If the LLM can't do your job they can't replace you with it

They can try. Which they'll then fail, and you'll be rehired and have to clean up the mess, then continue on

> and you'll be rehired and have to clean up the mess, then continue on

Not how this works. Yes, it happens sometimes, but there's no guarantee. Alternatives include:

- The rest of your team (or another tam) soaks up the additional work by working longer hours

- They hire someone else, or transfer someone from elsewhere

- The company accepts the lower output quality / whatever breakages result

- The breakages, even if unacceptable, only show up months down the line

So all that needs to happen is for your boss to believe they can replace you up to the point where they feel comfortable firing you. Whether that works or not is largely immaterial to the impact it thereafter has on your ability to pay rent / your mortgage / etc.

The fact that you could be fired at any time hasn't changed. That was true before any of this. Maybe this is a wake up call that it's a real risk, but the risk was always there and should be planned for

The more important thing though is that if LLMs can't replace people (remains to be seen) they won't lead to a net job loss. You'll find something else

You can't ignore managers, founders, colleagues, investors, and procurement teams.

Can't, or you're afraid to?

If you're not afraid of pushing back against an entire industry you don't have a full appreciation of the risks.

Aside: I love your website! Cool games :)

Thanks!

FWIW, I left my full time job some years ago to do my own thing, in part because pushing back on bad decisions was not really doing me any favors for my mental health. Glad to report I'm in a much better place after finding the courage to get out of that abusive relationship.

Some might argue the risk of not pushing back is far worse.

I was a contractor/consultant between 2020-2023; I have a problem w/ authority so it suited me. But work/life balance was awful--I have 2 kids now, and I can't do nothing for 6 weeks then work 100 hour weeks for 4 weeks. The maximum instability my life will tolerate is putting the kids to bed at 9 instead of 8:30 lol. I'm also in the Netherlands so there's also other benefits. Worker protections are very strong here, so it's highly unlikely I'll be fired or laid off; I can't be asked to work overtime; I can't be Slack'd after hours; I can drop down to 4 days a week no questions asked, when the kids were born I got a ton of paid leave, etc. Not to imply I work at some awful salt mine; I like my current gig and coworkers/leadership.

Anyway, this is a collective action problem. I don't take any responsibility for the huge plastic island in the Pacific, nor do I take any responsibility for the grift economy built on successive, increasingly absurd hype waves of tech (web 2.0, mobile, SPAs, big data, blockchain, VR, AI). I've also worked in social good, from Democratic presidential campaigns and recounts to helping connect people w/ pro bono legal services, which is to say I've done my time. There are too many problems for me to address, I get to pick which, if any, I battle, I am happy if my kids don't meltdown too much during the evening. Maybe when they're both in school I can take more risks or reformulate my work/life balance, but currently I'm focused on furthering the human race.

But this is how LLMs are marketed by all the big players. Should we ignore them too. LLMs are over sold.

Same as any other technology. If MongoDB tell you that their solution is "web scale" it's still on you to evaluate that claim before picking the database platform to build your company on.

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