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Proton’s CEO Cancels AI ‘Re-Interviews’ (www.404media.co)
submitted 1 week ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 30 points 6 days ago (13 children)

So, funny story that might be related. Engineers directed by their management to tokenmaxx often will just prompt very complex, difficult tasks to drive up their token usage.

Using the metric as the goal is a great way to give perverse incentives. SEE ALSO the US Stock Exchange.

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  • [–] 9 points 6 days ago

    Yeah, getting metrics on software development has always been a problem from the first time people were writing code in the employ of a business.

    Businesses love metrics. Put them on spreadsheet makes some graphs, that's what some people do as their job.

    The problem is you can't actually measure the productivity of someone that's doing something that's never been done before. Software development is always about doing things that haven't been done before. If you want the same software, you just copy it, you don't need a developer. You only need a developer to make the software do something it doesn't currently do, which means having someone do something they've never done before.

    You just can't measure the productivity on that. But businesses want to have some numbers, so they chuck whatever numbers they have into a spreadsheet.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 days ago (8 children)

    Giving devs metrics and targets is just so dumb.

    Their job is to learn the rules to manipulate systems to their benefit.

    If you hand them some half-cooked system they're going to work out how to (best case scenario) bend it out of their way.

    Worst case scenario is that they bend it to their benefit, and find a way to do less work for the same "score".

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  • [–] 1 point 6 days ago* (7 children)

    Everyone needs metrics and targets, otherwise it is just dicking around and nothing useful gets done.

    The problem it that tech bros only half listened in social sciences class and choose the dumbest metrics and targets. Agile completely killed waterfall and specification development. In turn, using the equivalent of ignorance of the masses ticket systems on Jira. The worst of all worlds with commits, PRs and lines of code as metrics and a vacuous tick mark on user stories as goals. No wonder software development has been hell for decades.

    Software developers need to stop designing in the code and go back to designing on paper against specifications and unit tests. Thinking has always been the main work of a software developer, not just writing code. As for the AI side of the problem, the purpose of code is not just to be written, but to be read and understood by humans. AI coding trashes the ontological purpose for the existence of code.

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  • [–] 0 points 5 days ago (6 children)

    Middle managers like to set targets and goals because it counts towards their bonus, and it looks less like they've got their dick in their hand when the boss comes calling.

    No one "needs" anything to do their job. A brief is helpful, a deadline is worth taking note of, but anything else is just interfering with people who are genuinely there to just do the job.

    Most productive jobs i ever had? The ones where i was asked to do something and then allowed to do it.

    As to the latter part of your message, it feels like you're just trying to process something so i think I'll just leave you to it. It's a bit too non-specific to respond to though.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 days ago

    Middle managers like to set targets and goals because it counts towards their bonus, and it looks less like they’ve got their dick in their hand when the boss comes calling.

    It's the same problem all over. Capitalism. You have people who don't do work keeping the benefits from the work.

    Most people aren't going to give themselves stupid or useless metrics. Software people aren't going to impose "tokens used" or "lines of code" metrics on themselves. They know those are stupid.

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  • [–] 0 points 5 days ago (4 children)

    People need a metric shitton of things to do their job well. When you're told what to do, that's a goal. If you're told a deadline to fulfill, that's a metric.

    I understand that people have taken the words in an exclusively derogatory mode. But you need minimum those two things to do any job. Else you're just a nepo dickhead who gets paid for parading around an office and you're the piece of shit interfering with the people who actually do have jobs to do.

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  • [–] 0 points 5 days ago (3 children)

    People need a metric shitton of things to do their job well

    That's hyperbole. There's a lot of things that would help a great deal, but can he done without.

    When you're told what to do, that's a goal

    No, thats a brief. A goal is "the dashboard released on time"

    If you're told a deadline to fulfill, that's a metric

    That's a goal. A metric is "1000 lines of code" or "300 sprint points"

    But you need minimum those two things to do any job

    Nope. That job where a team of 3 was running like 5 websites was self-run. The CEO came to us with questions and briefs and the rest of the team made requests, and we prioritised them and did them in the most efficient order possible.

    paid for parading around an office and you're the piece of shit interfering with the people who actually do have jobs to do.

    Sounds like management to me. Nothing produced but complaints, meetings and powerpoints.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 days ago* (2 children)

    Good, so next time when your manager tells you that they will halve your pay; Rescind healthcare and force you to use your personal equipment for work. Then you can tell them "alright boss". Because you can do without all those stuff you don't need.

    Also, a briefing is just a summary. I know because I do them all the time. Guess what is it a summary of? A summary of goals to achieve, for a mission, a project or a task someone else or myself have to achieve. God protects whoever you end up managing. You're the definition of the clueless manager who doesn't even have any idea of what basic words mean.

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