Post by @onepict@chaos.social
I got a call from someone I don't know.
"Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"
"Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."
"That much?"
Some silence.
"Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.
Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.
I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.
@stefano I think folks really have a lack of value for our profession because it's "computer skills".
It's the same attitude as "oh it's just plumbing" and before you know it you're knee deep in dirty water.
No matter how desperate we are for money, we must value our time. And like just get a plumber in.
We don't have to be good at everything. It's a chance to get to know folks and you never know the plumber might know a business that need your professional help.
2 boosts
@onepict True. Years ago, "it's an easy task! The 12 years old son of my friend could do it".
My reply was: "Let him do that, but don't call me when everything will be gone".
At times, it happened. Sometimes, they just went out of business.
@stefano Years ago we had a packet storm in our office which was a nightmare of hubs hanging off hubs, hanging off hubs.
I literally had to get everyone off the network and find the offending printer someone plugged in. Then get each department to log back in on a staggered scale.
Couple of weeks later and an engineer went oh I run a network at home. "Yeah how big?" I ask him, "5".
With restraint I told him that this site alone had 150 pcs and we had other sites in the city.
He shut up.
@stefano All that because the office didn't want to invest in a rewire and more switches.
@onepict Many of the problems customers have are related to lack of (small) investment in hardware or proper planning. The most difficult part is making them understand that they'll pay it, sooner or later, with interest and a lot of wasted time.
Luckily, many understand it and plan accordingly.
@onepict @stefano I don't know if corporate law is same in mainland Europe as UK, but there's a lot of "serial entrepreneurs" around who will simply let their business burn and walk away from all the creditors (using limited liability as a way of avoiding personal consequences) rather than do things properly or hire the right people.
And its not just in tech but across the board, to the point I do full audits on any suppliers I deal with, checking Companies House and all sorts (including any personal info I can find out about the directors)
AI is going to unearth way more of these, albeit with quite a bit of collateral damage along the line..
@vfrmedia @onepict One of the things I could never understand is running a business you really don't understand or don't care about.
I do the job I love, and I have a tiny company because I want to be the boss of myself and suggest my customers the solutions I believe in.
Running an IT company only for making money and for a short period of time sounds, to me, quite bad.
@stefano @onepict in Britain a lot of them don't start off bad or dishonest, but are so focused on constant growth they take on more work than they can support.
I've seen it with online services (we've been through 4 different care planning systems at work in 20 years because the small companies making them burned out), same with SMEs selling VOIP hardware (I seem to need a new one each time), also see this with automotive stuff (the place I got my last car from enshittified itself chasing after larger sales volumes and it was already creaking at the seams when I bought the car), and places like Amazon end up winning more business as for all their faults they do deliver stuff on time on more occasions..
