this post was submitted on 15 May 2025
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Work Reform

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[–] ChickenAndRice@sh.itjust.works 105 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

From the software engineer in the article:

“I think there’s this problem where people are stuck in the old world business mindset of, well, if I can do the same work that 10 developers were doing with one developer, let’s just cut the developer team instead of saying, oh, well, we’ve got a 10 developer team, let’s do 1,000x the work that we were doing before,” K says.


Buddy, there is no "old world business mindset", this is capitalism as usual. Even IF (big IF), an employer can get 1000x the output, you guys will NOT get 1000x the compensation. This is exploitation

Let's put this to rest: when productivity boosts are touted as a benefit from using AI, it doesn't mean shit if you work for someone else (i.e. you don't really own your work)

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 41 points 19 hours ago

Yeah. Mans was exempt from the orphan crushing machine so he thought it wasn't real.

It is. It's coming for all of us unless we do something to stop it.

I honestly don't even think it's all that relevant if his skills aren't super pro-level or he's looking in the wrong market. Yes, it is true that a lot of people who just had the ability to put together a functional web UI or run SQL commands have been able to command six figure salaries for a while. That is fine. We have technology enough at this point that we can support everyone in comfortable life, as long as they're willing to show up and do a full-time job. We broke the whole economy to where it turns into this special thing if you want a house, vacations, not want to have to worry. Like you have to be some kind of Good Will Hunting person to expect that. Fuck that. This guy should still get $150k. Everyone who works full time and has some training should make $125k a year and the shareholders should get less. Picking on this guy's supposed lack of pro-talent misses the point, I think.

We don't have a shortage of problems to solve. The planet is burning and all our tech is murdering our brains. If we could somehow get the people who want a full-time job and don't have one to start making money by working on those things 40 hours a week I feel like those things would be in better shape.