Not much normal this week

[flexagon]

This was a weird week at work because we had Wednesday off for Juneteenth, which was nice (I did chores and some small house improvements!) but also made it feel like a week with two Mondays and not enough time to get things done. My Tuesday date was cancelled, we had a houseguest, etc. To top it off we were having a giant heat wave and I also was sick -- some sinus thing, not covid -- which made me a lot less productive on Tuesday/Wednesday than I might have liked. Generally weird.

I did give a second presentation to my new VP, which went well and made him want a follow-up. And on Wednesday I managed to get back the results of the fancy aptitude testing I took, which was fun and interesting. Mostly I'm good at spatial reasoning, numbers, words and motor skills. The test thinks I should maybe be in engineering leadership... haha... not wrong, but I've already done that. Had a nice talk with the test-results lady about pursuing something with houses, and we agreed that houses with their various projects provide plenty of outlet for a lot of those aptitudes. I asked her to dig up any information they had on the aptitude profiles of landlords, property managers, and the like.

Laughed a lot at the article I Will Fucking Piledrive You If You Mention AI Again.

On Thursday I got a visit from apfelsingail, and we had takeout dinner & games with the bug and the squirrel, who was just returning from a business trip (and who then dashed for his car, as rain finally threatened to break our heatwave). I got apfel to play Animal Well for a little bit to see how she'd like it, and she showed me pictures of labyrinths on the beach, and it was good to catch up.

Somewhere in here I agreed to go to Montana for a week or so, and cleared a July 4 date with my dad's wife K, and took the days off work and bought the first of the two plane tickets I'll need. Also a car rental. The bug is coming with me, although we'd initially said he could follow after a few days. And it sounds like we'll be kept busy doing pragmatic things, which should help somewhat with the psychology of it all. If I'm going to be somewhere I hate, better to be doing something useful than trying to pretend I'm relaxing and enjoying myself. Talking to K on the phone, she has not been doing the pragmatic stuff like getting the house ready for his return or buying the things that are recommended (e.g. non-slip shower stool, shoe horn with a long handle). So we'll be on tap for all of that, plus probably taking their cat to the vet.

I've tapped out of hang gliding in October, because damn this is a lot of travel for the year, and I had already been concerned about week-long trips in both October and November. Not taking a refund though. Staying on their books so that I can do it in 2025.

Sunday is for work, workout, and finally having a squirrel date. There are so many disruptions on the horizon for all those things that I'm definitely starting to get flashes of panic.

Comments

[justplainuniverse]

"spending half of the planet's engineering efforts to add chatbot support to every application under the sun when half of the industry hasn't worked out how to test database backups regularly."

i am honestly infuriated that the company that creates our title management system we use at work rolled out a new AI tool when the title management system UI literally was designed in the 2000s. i mean, i don't actually know when it was literally designed. but it uses tables for layout and is not responsive and requires horizontal scrolling on viewports as wide as a 13" laptop and absolutely cannot be tiled next to another window. i have to use it multiple times a day. and then they have the nerve to send me invites to their "innovation in publishing" forum coming up.

[justplainuniverse]

also, while we are stuck using these horribly legacy systems with no update in sight, our CEO has initiated a "shark tank competition" with $reward$ for whatever employee can come up with and implement (???) the best use of AI. this article is hitting very close to home.

[justplainuniverse]

In the case that the technology continues to make incremental gains like this, your company does not need generative AI for the sake of it. You will know exactly why you need it if you do, indeed, need it.

ugh yes
I'm glad you laughed at this articular instead of getting mad like me haha.

[justplainuniverse]

OMg, i've got it! i'm going to submit a satirical proposal for how individual employees can use AI to code workarounds for bad legacy systems that nobody will ever update from the back end! do you think i can pull it off? not get in trouble, but still make a point?

[justplainuniverse]

OK i will stop spamming your comments soon (maybe). but... I asked AI to write this proposal for me, for our company's shark tank competition on best new use of AI for our business (because of COURSE you ask AI to write such a proposal for you), and it's SO GOOD.

example:
Continuous Subscription Value
Our vendors can rest easy knowing that we will continue to subscribe to their products, even if they come with poor UIs. With the ability to make real-time fixes, employees will ensure that these tools remain functional and relevant, thus maintaining the value of our subscriptions.