Are Tech Workers Obsolete?

[taiwan740]

Does anybody else feel like most IT work is bullshit?

In my experience, most IT work is either:-

1. Not IT work. Example: one time I lost my mind was I was instructed to stay behind after work on a Friday so that an urgent purchase order could be approved. The order was for orange highlighters and a foot massager.
2. Doing pointless rewrites to implement "next-generation" gimmicks. Example: re-developing video games. Or any other software to implement some cultist-fad such as microservice architecture.

The pointless rewrite addition isn't not specific to the IT or even technology as a whole though. The music industry is suffering a lot more. Taylor Swift's Red album was originally released in 2012 and was popular but not her best album for the time. There was a track on there called All Too Well that was basically a filler track. She re-released this (for legal reasons) in 2022 and All Too Well was number one for quite a few weeks.

 

[drhowarddrfine]

Yeah, I bet you know a lot of guys.

This guy bought 127 acres of Ozark land from me to expand his elk and deer raising business. Not goats but similar. He sold them to places like hunting lodges.
He was late to our meeting. He said he had to track down a doe that got out. She had $10k of semen in her. I said I'd do it for half that price.

I do know a lot of people but I'm not close to many of them. I once had Gerard Butler's cell phone number. I know the guy who handles the Winnie the Pooh franchise.

After many years, I called a college buddy at home but his Mom told me he moved to New York and gave me his work number. I called him at American Express where a male secretary informed me he was "Senior Attorney/Senior Vice President". After a brief pause, I was put through.

And on and on. I like to reminisce.

 

[Cath O'Deray]

… IT needs to be more invisible. I think that's the future, along with embedded devices and their interoperability.
Specific tasks rather than general systems. Think factories, farms, power distribution, traffic systems, point of sale, safety/security systems, acquisition systems, delivery systems, etc. This is also harder to outsource. …

These are the jobs most likely to be taken over by AI

Knowing how emerging technology will impact jobs is information that can help professionals stay relevant and competitive in an AI-driven world.

www.zdnet.com

❝… The UK's Department of Education recently published a study that found that 10-30% of occupations can be automated by AI, with most of these being white-collar jobs. …❞

… Commodity equipment flying on Mars well beyond its expected lifespan. Built for 5 flights. Now up to flight 69. …

<https://blogs.nasa.gov/sunspot/2023...ing-to-resolve-issue-with-voyager-1-computer/> | via <https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/@AkaSci@fosstodon.org/111573198830806484> "… a spacecraft with a signal round-trip-time of almost 2 days and hardware/software developed over 46 years ago using technology long since obsolete. …"

 

[taiwan740]

using technology long since obsolete. …"

Obsolete is subjective. Works/doesn't work is absolute.

 

[Sam The Ripper]

Does anybody else feel like most IT work is bullshit? I mean, almost everything just works nowadays and seems like there really isn't that much to do. Yes, we still have patches to install but it's mostly setup then autopilot.

I feel like the people complaining about not having enough staff, or the ones constantly putting out fires are just bad at their job and have no clue WTF they're doing. You can give a monkey a million dollars and they'll still spend it on bananas.

Anyway, I thought maybe development was the way to go but just seems like there isn't anything that needs building now. Maybe I'm wrong.

How is everybody here coping?

Well, I wouldn't say so.
I'm a Solution Architect of cloud native technologies, so I have to advocate b*******s like DevOps, AI, cloud and the new hot trend that is Platform Engineering.
I think we reached a point of no return in IT.
Nowadays people install something like OpenShift on top of VMware to run the same bad written Java applications that yesterday ran in a VM with JBoss/WebSphere. But with twice the complexity: metal+hypervisor+container runtime+service mess mesh.
And then they complain about the performance.
Wait, seriously? Just why? You're only passing through a L4 Load Balancer in passthrough mode that balances a L7 reverse proxy with SSL negotiation that redirects to another L4 Load Balancer...ehm a DNS Service Discovery* that is calling a reverse proxy via mTLS that is redirecting the traffic to your poor written application.
How can you think that there is a problem with all of that? This is the cloud you wanted, right? Just use this sh*t and GTFO.

Yesterday you just added a class in your CLASSPATH and your application would be traced by the APM.
Nowadays? Well, you can run APMs, but if you want observability with the Service Mesh then you have to use its instrumentation utilities like Jaeger or Kiali.
Just wow! And then, I think about DTrace that is able to perform the SAME level of tracing without all that mess!

And what about the storage?
Back in the days you could have a SAN with a good storage solution + a switch for fabrics. And your LUN was masked and zoned to be available to your server.
If you ran a VM, than your storage was a VMDK stored in a datastore that was just the LUN exported to the hypervisor that I said before.
What now?
That VMDK became a volume for ANOTHER storage solution (Portworx? Longhorn? Rook/Ceph? Heketi/GlusterFS?) that is going to use it as an archive for other virtual volumes exported it in iSCSI (when they have to provide a block storage) or directories exported in NFS or similar (when they have to provide a file storage).
And if you want an S3-compatible Object Storage? Well, there is MinIO, right? Right?

NICE! What a brilliant future!
And while people are enjoying this Babel Tower that is going to collapse I still think that everything could be done better with less complexity with a plain VIO+LPARs on a POWER system with AIX.

But, that's the life.

*I don't want you DevOps Engineers find out that it is a plain stupid L4 load balancing + an autodiscovery feature based on metadata, just like HAProxy or a F5 BigIP do from the dawn of time.

 

[Champion]

These are the jobs most likely to be taken over by AI

Knowing how emerging technology will impact jobs is information that can help professionals stay relevant and competitive in an AI-driven world.

www.zdnet.com

❝… The UK's Department of Education recently published a study that found that 10-30% of occupations can be automated by AI, with most of these being white-collar jobs. …❞



<https://blogs.nasa.gov/sunspot/2023...ing-to-resolve-issue-with-voyager-1-computer/> | via <https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/@AkaSci@fosstodon.org/111573198830806484> "… a spacecraft with a signal round-trip-time of almost 2 days and hardware/software developed over 46 years ago using technology long since obsolete. …"

I really view AI as something sort of like a smart calculator, someone still has to use the calculator and apply the results. Frequently the news exaggerates issues in order to draw more readers.

Although, it was maybe one hundred years ago that large companies employed human computers who basically did nothing but add numbers for the accounting departments. Ever hear of Waltham Watch Company? That was sort of like Google in the 1800s.

From wikipedia

The company was massively overstaffed, with the consulting engineers indicating that 4,000 people were currently employed to do the work that 2,000 efficiently used workers were capable of achieving.

Then NCR and IBM showed up making cash registers, time recording equipment, etc.
....yeah, Charles Flint, an IBM founder, does look and seem like an early variation of Elon Musk.

 

[astyle]

Does anybody else feel like most IT work is bullshit? I mean, almost everything just works nowadays and seems like there really isn't that much to do. Yes, we still have patches to install but it's mostly setup then autopilot.

I feel like the people complaining about not having enough staff, or the ones constantly putting out fires are just bad at their job and have no clue WTF they're doing. You can give a monkey a million dollars and they'll still spend it on bananas.

Anyway, I thought maybe development was the way to go but just seems like there isn't anything that needs building now. Maybe I'm wrong.

How is everybody here coping?

I wouldn't say it's obsolete... as in:

• Technical details still need to line up. I primarily put out fires on my $JOB, but it really helps to know what you're actually doing. Just because a user has a bright idea on how to do something - it doesn't mean it will work OK on the employer's infrastructure.
• AI (like ChatGPT) can be helpful if you use it right - it does force you to think about how you even formulate the problem.
• Somebody gotta actually pay attention to the ticket systems and babysit data transfers.

My gripe is that users like to think of themselves as 'computer literate' while having only a vague idea of how the employer's infrastructure is organized and maintained. Then the users mess up, and I'm the one putting out the fire and cleaning up so that their stuff works correctly. Well, that does keep me busy from time to time. In return for knowing what I'm actually doing and having a good handle on policies and mechanisms on employer's infrastructure, I get a lot of discretion in how I do my job

 

[Beastie7]

Word has it Redmond wants to put Windows Desktop under a subscription model too.

The distant future ain’t lookin’ too bright. Glad I left after Windows 7. ?

 

[Champion]

Word has it Redmond wants to put Windows Desktop under a subscription model too.

That's probably the worst thing that Microsoft could ever do and the best thing for Canonical [and that guy you know who always wanted to create a company but never did].
If anything, they should make it free and sell user software and updates.

The more Windows costs, the more other companies are incentivized to create replacements.

 

[gpw928]

I really view AI as something sort of like a smart calculator, someone still has to use the calculator and apply the results.

Agreed, but I'd say "an opinionated smart calculator", and it's going to get entertaining as AIs increasingly get trained on other (dodgy) AIs.

 

[getopt]

Most of the "AI Hype" we get nowadays is because there's nothing else to talk about in tech right now.

You might have missed this one in the BS-Bingo: "e/acc"

Notes on e/acc principles and tenets

A physics-first view of the principles underlying effective accelerationism

beff.substack.com

And as an entry point for sorting things out:

Effective accelerationism - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

And make sure you lookup the term Accelerationism yourself. This is neccesary if you get offered a job serving pople like Bezos et al. in their bunkers:

How tech's richest plan to save themselves after the apocalypse

Silicon Valley’s elite are hatching plans to escape disaster – and when it comes, they’ll leave the rest of us behind

www.theguardian.com

 

[Phishfry]

like Bezos et al. in their bunkers:

Zuck too:

Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Top-Secret Hawaii Compound

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is building a sprawling, $100 million compound in Hawaii—complete with plans for a huge underground bunker. A WIRED investigation reveals the true scale of the project—and its impact on the local community.

www.wired.com

it reminds him of medieval rulers who, according to legend, killed the architects of their most ambitious projects so the secrets of their designs would die with them.

 

[hardworkingnewbie]

When young people ask me about going into the computer business, I tell them to be a plumber instead.

Plumbing work cannot be outsourced to India.
Consider this: it is Sunday night, on a holiday weekend.
You have four inches of black water belched out of your toilet and all over the floor.

Q: are you gonna call a lawyer, an IT guy or a plumber?
At holiday, weekend, and off-hour rates...

Well... and building your local LAN with cables, switches, ethernet sockets and such can also not be outsourced to India, also not most of its maintenance or upgrades. And we still will have lots of these in the future.

Are tech workers obsolete? No. As long as it printing out something onto paper is a challenge for too many, or scan something, tech workers always will be there.

Is all tech work bullshit? Also no. But of course there's the old bullshit, like CYBER CYBER virus scanners and such and the new bullshit. And bullshit is a growing part of the industry.

 

[Phishfry]

Todays Tech Workers are tomorrows Blue Collar Workers.

 

[getopt]

Todays Tech Workers are tomorrows Blue Collar Workers.

They deserve their own color. What about this one:

 

[Crivens]

Sorry, green collar is already taken.
Having done that, I can assure you that outsourcing that job is a freaking bad idea.

 

[PMc]

Does anybody else feel like most IT work is bullshit? I mean, almost everything just works nowadays

No, guys, you got it all wrong! Everything just DON'T work, and we're fine with it. We have accepted that we run crap, but the crap seems good enough to make money. People don't implement IPv6, don't implement DNSSEC etc.etc, instead, those who know how to do things get fired, as that saves money.

How is everybody here coping?

No job.

 

[Phishfry]

That Guardian/Medium Article has some deep thought involved versus Wireds pop version.

This single question occupied us for the rest of the hour. They knew armed guards would be required to protect their compounds from the angry mobs. But how would they pay the guards once money was worthless? What would stop the guards from choosing their own leader? The billionaires considered using special combination locks on the food supply that only they knew. Or making guards wear disciplinary collars of some kind in return for their survival.

Wow that is a weird way to think. I guess when you have to rely on others for your security you get paranoid.

 

[getopt]

Wow that is a weird way to think. I guess when you have to rely on others for your security you get paranoid.

Exactly! That is the result of their thinking things to the end.

So why would the users/customers of their services still want to support them becoming more and more power? And even more important: Why do people still want to work for them? Shouldn't thyself lineup at the conveyor belt at the supermarket checkout buying their loo rolls and being asked if they collect bonus points?

 

[PMc]

Exactly! That is the result of their thinking things to the end.

It's not "their". Its humans. When you have something others might steal, you lock the door. When you have more, you get stronger doors. Add linear expolation.

So why would the users/customers of their services still want to support them becoming more and more power?

Explain me this! Why do they, for some 20 years now??

 

[astyle]

So, Maui mismanaged in the wake of Lahaina fires, Larry Ellison taking over Lanai, Barack Obama stopping traffic everywhere on Oahu, and now Zuck taking over Kauai??? WTF... I should hurry up and mine enough to buy the Big Island before somebody else gets there and blocks my access to my surfing break... ?

 

[Phishfry]

Hawaii has never been attacked before sounds like a great place to build a bunker....
I am sure they built it with Facebooks money or some bogus foundation. God forbid he spend his own loot.
Priscilla Chan Foundation for the preservation of my own ass...

 

[astyle]

Hawaii has never been attacked before sounds like a great place to build a bunker....
I am sure they built it with Facebooks money or some bogus foundation. God forbid he spend his own loot.
Priscilla Chan Foundation for the preservation of my own ass...

Sure you forgot about Pearl Harbor?

and Big Island is an active volcano that forces people out of their homes from time to time?

 

[Phishfry]

That was sarcasm. What is closest target for CCP,NK,RUS missiles? Certainly not Idaho.

 

[Phishfry]

Serious question though: 30 bedrooms in your bunker mansion who do you invite for armageddon?
Family?
Top META Corporate officers?
Security team and family?