I once worked at a company that sold industry-specific core-business software to deep-pocketed corps who couldn’t / wouldn’t / shouldn’t roll their own.
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Weirdly, the old consumer-driven version of capitalism, where profit came from sales, now looks lovely compared to the current investor-driven version where profit comes from wooing the ultra-wealthy.
Sorry, Marxists in the replies, I am not optimistic about the inevitable market swing bringing about revolution and glorious utopia. It didn’t in 2008, and it won’t now either. But I do believe the pendulum will swing back, at least.
And we do have greater than zero power to help it swing.
A/5
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OK, I promised you optimism:
The world, including the business world, is •full• of good people doing good things. Yes, there are actually businesses that do manage to do good sometimes…but that's not where I’m going with this.
Even in the most useless, soul-sucking, useless, everything-is-fake business environment, there are people solving fun problems, forming collegial relationships, being kind to each other, finding joy in the mundane. And •that• is life’s real work.
A/6
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Yes, a whole lot of business activity is fake. It’s playing with sand castles and pretending that princesses are going to live in them. But hell, at least it’s people playing!
If like me it’s hard for you to keep the MBA goggles on, and you keep asking “What about real good for real people?!,” well, all the sand castles come and go, profits come and go, and the lives lived along the way matter more than any of it.
A/7
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Paul Cantrellreplied to Paul Cantrell last edited by [email protected]
I don’t want to downplay the harm our systems do. The world is •full• of preventable harm. It’s enraging, and it’s heartbreaking.
All I’m saying is this: don’t neglect the importance of the humans living their lives in the middle of all the corporate nonsense. I’m concerned about the quality of the product, but in the end, I’m a lot more concerned about the lives of the people building and using it. And the product isn’t the most important thing in any of their lives.
A/8
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Even in the fakest and most ridiculous places I’ve worked, including the ones upthread, I’ve seen people being beautiful, exemplary frigging human beings, caring for each other, living good lives that are bigger and better and so much more important than the boulder we’re rolling up the hill just to see it roll down.
•That• is the most important thing in the world. I’d like less waste along the way. I’d sure like less harm. But I recognize that we are very, very far from hopeless.
A/9
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@inthehands *insert Southpark meme here*
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@Mela
For all the problems I have with that show, which are many, it really did capture this specific kind of cynicism very well. -
finger to the moon, man
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@inthehands oh Paul I felt so so so much empathy reading this. Because everyone who is an evidence bringer and data questioner ends up having this shocking moment at some point. When we realize that it is *what we are good at doing* and *what is good to do* that has made people who *asked us to do that thing* turn on us....how I recognize it
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CatSalad🐈🥗 (D.Burch) :blobcatrainbow:replied to Paul Cantrell last edited by
@inthehands Nailed it, right there
[Gen AI] leads people on wild goose chases •far• more efficiently than the humans.
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@grimalkina
What a kind and humane reply, Cat. Of course it would be you who infers the author’s emotional and psychological experience from their writing, who spots the human in the situation. I appreciate you so much for it. -
One of the alternative "investments" being made is public corruption in broad daylight.
Using campaign finance & Citizens United, #KochNetwork #RockbridgeNetwork , #AtlasNetwork converted constitutional democracy into kleptocracy.
Elon Musk bought a president for a quarter billion bucks. A bargain. He now gets to enrich himself on the taxpayers dime now.
https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/elon-musk-trump-donations-2024-election-rcna183231The Supreme Court has legalized bribery of elected officials, and relabeled it as "a gratuity".
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@inthehands David Graber's "BS jobs" should be a high school textbook. Late Stage Capitalism is a religion, and his 2013 artivle was 95 theses nailed to its door.
Especially when you ponder the "real" jobs done entirely in support of BS: top floor of management consultants bringing in money, supported by IT, HR, accounts receivable, payroll, janitors, cafeteria staff, and their managers... And all the jobs with 2 hours of real work a week and 38 looking busy.
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Fossil fuel dollars fund fascist movements & corrupt crony capitalism.
Donald Trump Jr. Will Reportedly Join An Anti-ESG Venture Capital Firm Instead Of The White House—Here’s What We Know
President-elect Donald Trump’s oldest son is reportedly set to join 1789 Capital—a venture capital firm that invests in conservative-leaning companies.
Forbes (www.forbes.com)
Silicon valley's secret influence on 2024 election revealed | The Express Tribune
JD Vance’s Rockbridge directs funds to right-wing journalism, voter, polls and church activism, influencing key states
The Express Tribune (tribune.com.pk)
Understanding Atlas: how a right-wing network is building global influence
By Sam Williams Founded in 1981, Atlas is a global network of right-wing ‘think tanks’ that organise and build power so they can shape the systems and structures we live in, to advance their own interests. According to its website, Atlas links 550 think tanks in more than 100 countries, including ten in New Zealand and Australia. Its political alignment is spelt out in its vision “of a free, prosperous, and peaceful world where the principles of individual liberty, property rights, limited government, and free markets are secured by the rule of law”.
PSA (www.psa.org.nz)
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@landley
I only half agree: from the little I know of the book, he’s on to something, but his specific assessment of which jobs are BS and how to tell seems deeply flawed and facile to me.A more accurate assessment is that BS is marbled through most of our jobs in varying proportions, and you can’t really label specific positions — much less specific types of jobs — as being BS across the board.
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@Npars01 @inthehands It’s all going to come tumbling down and they’re blind to see it from their lofty towers.
Both the people and the planet just can’t take it anymore. -
@bouriquet @Npars01
Sooner or later, yes, it has to. My concern is who gets hurt along the way. -
@inthehands Thanks for this thread. I live in the product world, and half the time, we're in the cross-hairs of angry developers and the people who want unrealistic growth and $$$. Most of the product managers I meet are beyond burnt out.
Like any new shiny thing: LLMs, blockchain, "IBM Watson", we're asked to do something with it to show we're "doing innovation". But why? For what purpose and customer/user benefit?
Just do it, they'd say.
So now there's AWFUL "AI" embedded in every UX.
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@MayInToronto
So many work environments would be so vastly improved if people in different roles simply believed in the reality of each other‘s problems, instead of grabbing whatever power they can to force their worldview onto other people‘s jobs. -
@inthehands I'm a big (vocal) proponent of giving small teams the autonomy to make these decisions and the guidance/support to excel at it.
90% of the time, the problem lives in leadership, shininess value for investors, and/or a misalignment between the product's viability vs the company's set targets.
