Disclaimer: I don’t have any understanding when it comes to finance/economics other than what I’ve experienced/read. However, it does seem hard to argue the fact that economics/finance are so divorced from reality that they ought to be viewed the same as the national debt.
I’m sure there are others in the same boat, but I’m still having trouble getting past the absurdity and ominous nature of everything happening in the corporate world right now. Almost every single conversation is boiled down to “just ask Claude” and it’s being used to slow down existing workflows to a comical degree. Who knows maybe this will self-correct over time, but it’s certainly a choice at the moment.
I’m not trying to be a doomer I’m really not, but these people live in a different reality than you and I. I used to listen to Ed Zitron’s podcast and tuned in to any number of his appearances on other shows to sort of shield myself from all the noise that encompasses this age of tech, but I’m slowly coming to the realization that the economics/financial picture of the situation seems entirely inconsequential. I’m hoping this is just my lack of knowledge when it comes to finance/econ, but fuck if I know. Maybe this post will make me look like a dumbass in a year or so (I hope it does).
I feel like all of us in corporate are all assets in a bet from the most evil people on the planet to see if they will be able to replace huge swaths of the population with a “good enough” solution that will slowly be de-valued and phased out of the workforce akin to IT jobs in the early/mid 2010s.
This shit really blows and I feel like LLM companies are going to come out on top, primarily because Claude has proven that it can generate passable output at lightning speed and that is more than enough to please C suites.
Also the industry being filled with people taking advantage of presumed wealthy people (cuz, you know, house) who don’t know better and not being able to tell a fair price. Got quoted 800usd to replace a water main shutoff valve stem last year, as an example.
That’s correct. The industry is also fucking FULL of private equity plumbing companies that nickel and dime for everything. An example; as a routine part of chasing a sewer clog sometimes I need to pull a commode. I will typically just re-use the commode supply line unless it is leaking, visibly damaged etc. Lot of places will not pull a commode without requiring you to purchase a new commode supply line due to “liability”, they claim it might rupture because it’s reused and it must be replaced instead. That supply line costs me about three bucks wholesale and then places like Roto-Rooter will charge you forty bucks for the supply line and fifty bucks for labor.
The shop I work for gets a bit exorbitant even then. Example sewer call:
$145 trip charge just for me to darken your door
$175 per hour for me (TWO HOUR MINIMUM!)
$85 per hour for my greenhorn
$100 equipment charge
$50 gas
$25 consumables charge (gloves rags shoe booties etc)
That’s how you end up with an $25 dollar brass valve costing 800 to install
I will however, find any and every way possible to stick you with as large a bill as I can legally manage if you are a land lord/property manager etc. I will lie to landlords about the tenants responsibility for clogs/breaks/negligence. I absolutely enjoy that part, comrade. It’s never the tenants fault, even if it is.
Based.