My own take on this is that neither quality or efficiency are at issue at all.
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"Failing upwards" isn't real. People don't fail upward, we just call it that because the alternative - that they are succeeding at the pointless bullshit that's defined as success - means the work we do, the source of identity and meaning for so many of us, might also be pointless bullshit.
It's easier to make up a story that gives us an adversary than admit that we're trapped inside and complicit in the same process of anti-meaning.
AI Psychosis isn't really about AI. It's about meaning.
@mhoye are you sure it's not real? because I'm a great developer but I've been promoted such that I also have management responsibilities, which I suck at
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"Failing upwards" isn't real. People don't fail upward, we just call it that because the alternative - that they are succeeding at the pointless bullshit that's defined as success - means the work we do, the source of identity and meaning for so many of us, might also be pointless bullshit.
It's easier to make up a story that gives us an adversary than admit that we're trapped inside and complicit in the same process of anti-meaning.
AI Psychosis isn't really about AI. It's about meaning.
I mean, it doesn't help that the chatbot says you're great and doing well and absolutely right. That part is particularly sinister.
But when I see people in the grips of this shit I don't see naivete or idiocy or mendacity so much as I see people who've found themselves trapped in a cult of their own personality. But the rules of that cult, the ceremonies, everything defining it has been out of their control and has been forever.
And the only alternative they have is confronting that.
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I mean, it doesn't help that the chatbot says you're great and doing well and absolutely right. That part is particularly sinister.
But when I see people in the grips of this shit I don't see naivete or idiocy or mendacity so much as I see people who've found themselves trapped in a cult of their own personality. But the rules of that cult, the ceremonies, everything defining it has been out of their control and has been forever.
And the only alternative they have is confronting that.
We're all adults, we've all gotta make our own choices and we're responsible for them, I get it, but so much of tech has always looked kind of like a cult, certainly prone to cult like tendencies, and maybe AI psychosis is what psychological abuse would look like, over a long enough time horizon, if it were just slow enough that people's ability to see themselves, or see outside themselves, or define themselves outside the metrics and targets, was - deliberately - atrophied long enough.
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@mhoye are you sure it's not real? because I'm a great developer but I've been promoted such that I also have management responsibilities, which I suck at
@aburka Yeah, I misspoke - that should have read "failing upwards", not "the peter principle". I've corrected it.
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@aburka Yeah, I misspoke - that should have read "failing upwards", not "the peter principle". I've corrected it.
@mhoye ah okay yeah. I was going to say those weren't the same but thought you might have been trying to give two examples
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We're all adults, we've all gotta make our own choices and we're responsible for them, I get it, but so much of tech has always looked kind of like a cult, certainly prone to cult like tendencies, and maybe AI psychosis is what psychological abuse would look like, over a long enough time horizon, if it were just slow enough that people's ability to see themselves, or see outside themselves, or define themselves outside the metrics and targets, was - deliberately - atrophied long enough.
When the metrics by which you have defined yourself have been turned into a way to to target your identity, are they still useful metrics?
Useful to who? To what end? And what do you do, then?
If your sense of self has this much pressure is being placed upon it for control purposes, where do you find time to ask, control of what, by who, and to what end? What are the alternatives _but_ collapse?
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I mean, it doesn't help that the chatbot says you're great and doing well and absolutely right. That part is particularly sinister.
But when I see people in the grips of this shit I don't see naivete or idiocy or mendacity so much as I see people who've found themselves trapped in a cult of their own personality. But the rules of that cult, the ceremonies, everything defining it has been out of their control and has been forever.
And the only alternative they have is confronting that.
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We're all adults, we've all gotta make our own choices and we're responsible for them, I get it, but so much of tech has always looked kind of like a cult, certainly prone to cult like tendencies, and maybe AI psychosis is what psychological abuse would look like, over a long enough time horizon, if it were just slow enough that people's ability to see themselves, or see outside themselves, or define themselves outside the metrics and targets, was - deliberately - atrophied long enough.
Rich Puchalsky ⩜⃝ (@richpuchalsky@mastodon.social)
There is no such thing as AI psychosis. There are a few people going through ordinary psychosis at any time who, during this, interact with an AI. All the rest of it is: the worst people you've worked with on a programming project, who didn't ever seem like they knew what they were doing, now still doing know what they're doing but because of AI they think that they do to a greater extent.
Mastodon (mastodon.social)
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"Failing upwards" isn't real. People don't fail upward, we just call it that because the alternative - that they are succeeding at the pointless bullshit that's defined as success - means the work we do, the source of identity and meaning for so many of us, might also be pointless bullshit.
It's easier to make up a story that gives us an adversary than admit that we're trapped inside and complicit in the same process of anti-meaning.
AI Psychosis isn't really about AI. It's about meaning.
@mhoye oh i've personally witnessed someone failing upwards once but that was ages ago.
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When we saw the huge Return To Office Return To Normal push, You Will Be Measured By Days Of Your Butt In A Desk... where did that come from, fast and hard?
True story: it came from companies whose boards and major shareholders had enormous investments in corporate real estate. It came from the people who owned the stadium, and saw that their stadium might lose its value.
For the rest The Rules now included Incomprehensible RTO Mandates and leaders making up fantasies about productivity.
@mhoye The whole "return to normal" was due to corporate panic and the fact that people simply didn't need to work in the old ways which lowered the corporate control over their workers. Nope, wouldn't do, get everyone back in and show them who's boss.
For a brief moment, the worker had power over their daily lives and could have demanded more equitable working situations, that struck fear in the paymasters so return to normal it was, make up something about "the economy" meaning shareholder value and away they went.
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When we saw the huge Return To Office Return To Normal push, You Will Be Measured By Days Of Your Butt In A Desk... where did that come from, fast and hard?
True story: it came from companies whose boards and major shareholders had enormous investments in corporate real estate. It came from the people who owned the stadium, and saw that their stadium might lose its value.
For the rest The Rules now included Incomprehensible RTO Mandates and leaders making up fantasies about productivity.
@mhoye
Don't forget the tax breaks the companies get on leases etc but have to maintain certain % occupancy. (At least that's what I had been told)
