1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:06,600 Speaker 1: All zone media, mother father, come quick, it's better offline. 2 00:00:06,640 --> 00:00:21,959 Speaker 1: The tech podcast I'm Your host ed Zetron What. A 3 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:24,560 Speaker 1: few weeks ago, the Internet was captivated by the work 4 00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:28,200 Speaker 1: of one particularly pissed off software developer who claimed, and 5 00:00:28,280 --> 00:00:31,040 Speaker 1: I quote the title of his blog, I will fucking 6 00:00:31,120 --> 00:00:34,720 Speaker 1: pile drive you if you mention AI again. The writer, 7 00:00:35,159 --> 00:00:38,640 Speaker 1: based in Australia, lays out in detail how infuriating a 8 00:00:38,680 --> 00:00:41,720 Speaker 1: distraction AI has become from the wider problems riddling many 9 00:00:41,720 --> 00:00:45,240 Speaker 1: modern tech companies, as well as the noxious, nasty presence 10 00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:48,320 Speaker 1: of grift and management consultant types that are deliberately keeping 11 00:00:48,400 --> 00:00:51,879 Speaker 1: it inflated, regardless of whether it actually means anything. One 12 00:00:51,920 --> 00:00:55,080 Speaker 1: particular quote stood out to me. You see, while hype 13 00:00:55,200 --> 00:00:58,440 Speaker 1: is nice, it's only nice in small bursts. For practitioners, 14 00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:01,400 Speaker 1: we have a few things that a grifter does not have, 15 00:01:01,520 --> 00:01:05,679 Speaker 1: such as job stability, genuine friendships and souls. What we 16 00:01:05,760 --> 00:01:09,319 Speaker 1: do not have is the ability to trivially switch fields 17 00:01:09,319 --> 00:01:11,880 Speaker 1: the moment the gold rush is over, due to the 18 00:01:11,920 --> 00:01:14,680 Speaker 1: sad fact that we actually need to study things and 19 00:01:14,880 --> 00:01:19,119 Speaker 1: build experience. Grifters, on the other hand, wield the omnitool 20 00:01:19,360 --> 00:01:23,040 Speaker 1: that they self aggrandizingly call politics. That is to say, 21 00:01:23,440 --> 00:01:25,880 Speaker 1: it turns out that the core competency of smiling and 22 00:01:26,120 --> 00:01:30,200 Speaker 1: promising people things that you can't actually deliver is highly transferable. 23 00:01:30,959 --> 00:01:33,160 Speaker 1: This piece caught both my eye and that of Cool 24 00:01:33,240 --> 00:01:36,360 Speaker 1: Zone Media's Robert Evans, who assured me he promised that 25 00:01:36,480 --> 00:01:38,840 Speaker 1: I'd be allowed to leave the Cool Zone Media pain 26 00:01:38,920 --> 00:01:40,760 Speaker 1: cage if I was able to get the author of 27 00:01:40,760 --> 00:01:43,360 Speaker 1: the piece on the show. So that's what I did. 28 00:01:45,480 --> 00:01:49,280 Speaker 1: Adjoining us to talk about this incredibly aggressive blog is 29 00:01:49,480 --> 00:01:53,200 Speaker 1: Nikol Suresh, who's the director at Hermit Technology and an 30 00:01:53,200 --> 00:01:55,520 Speaker 1: excellent blogger. Nick, thank you so much for joining us. 31 00:01:55,960 --> 00:01:58,960 Speaker 2: Oh, thank you for the very kind words. I'm super 32 00:01:58,960 --> 00:02:02,040 Speaker 2: excited to be here. When that piece came out, at 33 00:02:02,120 --> 00:02:03,960 Speaker 2: least three people said, hey, have you heard of ed 34 00:02:04,040 --> 00:02:07,560 Speaker 2: Citron And I was like, well, I'm talking to Tomorrow'll 35 00:02:07,600 --> 00:02:09,560 Speaker 2: be excited now I will. 36 00:02:10,040 --> 00:02:13,120 Speaker 1: So you're angry, I think we've kind of got that, 37 00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:16,680 Speaker 1: and I share your anger. But what is it about 38 00:02:16,680 --> 00:02:19,560 Speaker 1: this that really boils your blood that makes you want 39 00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:20,680 Speaker 1: to pile drive folks? 40 00:02:21,919 --> 00:02:22,359 Speaker 3: Yeah. 41 00:02:22,480 --> 00:02:26,200 Speaker 2: So it's interesting because a lot of people read that 42 00:02:26,280 --> 00:02:29,120 Speaker 2: piece and they reached out and thought that, you know, 43 00:02:29,360 --> 00:02:34,280 Speaker 2: I'm actually super angry about AI specifically, but a pretty 44 00:02:34,320 --> 00:02:35,720 Speaker 2: consistent through line through my blog. 45 00:02:35,720 --> 00:02:37,359 Speaker 3: It's on a lot of traffic over the past year 46 00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:37,920 Speaker 3: and a half. 47 00:02:38,440 --> 00:02:42,160 Speaker 2: It's not about AI specifically, it's about this massive class 48 00:02:42,200 --> 00:02:47,000 Speaker 2: of non technical managers that have entered the IT space 49 00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:51,280 Speaker 2: and you're essentially cause playing and doing software engineering. The 50 00:02:51,360 --> 00:02:55,200 Speaker 2: thing that is infuriating about the LLLM thing in particular 51 00:02:55,560 --> 00:02:59,239 Speaker 2: is that it's uniquely suited for drifting. So if you 52 00:02:59,320 --> 00:03:02,079 Speaker 2: look at the average company that they can't ship incredibly 53 00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:04,880 Speaker 2: basic applications. And even if you look at something like 54 00:03:04,919 --> 00:03:07,920 Speaker 2: the crypto space, which I don't like, but you look 55 00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:12,480 Speaker 2: around Melbourne, crypto companies actually have some level of engineering discipline. 56 00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:15,880 Speaker 2: You know, they use newer technology, they've got there's things 57 00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:18,080 Speaker 2: in the job descriptions to indicate seriousness. 58 00:03:18,440 --> 00:03:18,520 Speaker 1: Right. 59 00:03:18,600 --> 00:03:21,919 Speaker 2: AI companies don't have that, and I don't think at 60 00:03:21,919 --> 00:03:25,480 Speaker 2: big corporations CEOs are aware that their stoff for just 61 00:03:25,520 --> 00:03:28,400 Speaker 2: typing an import open AI. You know, you're not doing 62 00:03:28,480 --> 00:03:32,000 Speaker 2: any complex work. You just call like an API. You 63 00:03:32,040 --> 00:03:34,600 Speaker 2: just you just send data to a company in the US. 64 00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:38,320 Speaker 2: They do everything, and people down here in Melbourne are 65 00:03:38,840 --> 00:03:42,360 Speaker 2: making out like they're the greatest engineers ever, their thought leaders. 66 00:03:42,400 --> 00:03:45,360 Speaker 2: You should put them on comper stages. It's not hard. 67 00:03:45,440 --> 00:03:47,320 Speaker 2: It's so easy. It takes like a week to make 68 00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:48,280 Speaker 2: something from scratch. 69 00:03:49,360 --> 00:03:49,760 Speaker 4: Yeah. 70 00:03:49,840 --> 00:03:52,200 Speaker 5: I really appreciated that part of your piece because it 71 00:03:52,240 --> 00:03:55,400 Speaker 5: gets at something that's like frustrated me as well, which 72 00:03:55,440 --> 00:03:57,200 Speaker 5: is and I'm not coming at this from the same 73 00:03:57,320 --> 00:03:59,560 Speaker 5: kind of technical background you are, but knowing that there's 74 00:04:00,040 --> 00:04:03,840 Speaker 5: there's legitimate technology here, but all of the people being 75 00:04:04,040 --> 00:04:06,760 Speaker 5: trusted with marshaling it and marshaling these companies that are 76 00:04:06,800 --> 00:04:09,560 Speaker 5: supposed to deliver it to us are on their face. Conman, 77 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:12,200 Speaker 5: I'm thinking about Sam Altman today, or at least the 78 00:04:12,200 --> 00:04:14,360 Speaker 5: clip came out today where he's like, soon you'll be 79 00:04:14,360 --> 00:04:18,560 Speaker 5: able to just ask asking chat GPT to solve physics for. 80 00:04:18,520 --> 00:04:20,280 Speaker 4: You, solveys. 81 00:04:20,720 --> 00:04:24,479 Speaker 5: That's just a nonsense statement. That's just that's absurd. The 82 00:04:24,520 --> 00:04:26,680 Speaker 5: way we know that, right, we can all tell that 83 00:04:26,680 --> 00:04:27,520 Speaker 5: that's nonsense. 84 00:04:28,240 --> 00:04:31,440 Speaker 2: If if you're not defaming him, that's a crazy thing. 85 00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:33,520 Speaker 3: Like if you guess those are the. 86 00:04:33,440 --> 00:04:35,400 Speaker 4: Woods, I'll find the exact quote. 87 00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:38,640 Speaker 1: But yeah, no, he he, he was very much. That's 88 00:04:38,680 --> 00:04:41,359 Speaker 1: what he said. You've spoken of this kind of like 89 00:04:41,560 --> 00:04:45,120 Speaker 1: organizational cancer inside tech films? Is it this kind of grift? 90 00:04:45,960 --> 00:04:49,719 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's not specific to technology. It's just the 91 00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:52,640 Speaker 2: technology makes it very very easy. I don't know of 92 00:04:52,760 --> 00:04:55,960 Speaker 2: any industry that doesn't have this massive horde of people 93 00:04:56,000 --> 00:04:58,880 Speaker 2: who don't really know what they're doing, right, but they 94 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:02,680 Speaker 2: just kind of bulldoze peaceeople socially put it this way. 95 00:05:03,160 --> 00:05:05,600 Speaker 2: So I think my blog is done two million hits 96 00:05:05,640 --> 00:05:09,720 Speaker 2: in the past year and a million realized. And when 97 00:05:09,800 --> 00:05:12,320 Speaker 2: people talked about, you know, offering me work or anything, 98 00:05:13,440 --> 00:05:16,560 Speaker 2: they said they would give me a reference at their workplace, 99 00:05:16,960 --> 00:05:19,839 Speaker 2: but they wouldn't mention that piece because leadership would be 100 00:05:19,920 --> 00:05:22,720 Speaker 2: so embarrassed, like they can't have someone like me around 101 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:26,680 Speaker 2: going to someone yeah somewhat cool things, it says, fuck 102 00:05:26,760 --> 00:05:30,279 Speaker 2: sometimes can't have that. But no, it's just because like 103 00:05:30,320 --> 00:05:33,440 Speaker 2: the Emperor very clearly has no clothes. I don't even 104 00:05:33,480 --> 00:05:36,120 Speaker 2: really get hate mail because people know I'll just point 105 00:05:36,160 --> 00:05:39,800 Speaker 2: out that they're drifting and they'll have no defense, so 106 00:05:39,839 --> 00:05:41,280 Speaker 2: they just leave me alone. 107 00:05:41,440 --> 00:05:43,880 Speaker 1: Yet, So, how do you think that this has happened? 108 00:05:43,880 --> 00:05:46,359 Speaker 1: It clearly isn't something that happened overnight, but it feels like, 109 00:05:46,800 --> 00:05:50,400 Speaker 1: especially the tech industry, has just been poisoned by product 110 00:05:50,440 --> 00:05:53,040 Speaker 1: managers and management concerns. How did this happen? 111 00:05:53,839 --> 00:05:57,040 Speaker 2: Off the top of my head, something that really influences 112 00:05:57,080 --> 00:06:00,800 Speaker 2: this is just very strange ideas on how things scale. 113 00:06:01,839 --> 00:06:04,760 Speaker 2: There is this I listened to those two episodes you suggested, 114 00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:07,720 Speaker 2: and I think the main one is the Rot Combobble, 115 00:06:07,760 --> 00:06:11,400 Speaker 2: which people should go listen to. And there is this 116 00:06:11,480 --> 00:06:15,200 Speaker 2: idea that everything should scale up forever, and the only 117 00:06:15,240 --> 00:06:18,600 Speaker 2: way to handle that communicatively is like this hierarchical structure. 118 00:06:19,160 --> 00:06:21,480 Speaker 3: But it's really hard to find good people. 119 00:06:21,520 --> 00:06:23,560 Speaker 2: And I think a huge hierarchy can work if you 120 00:06:23,640 --> 00:06:27,159 Speaker 2: only have really great people in it, but it's really hard. 121 00:06:27,480 --> 00:06:28,440 Speaker 3: There's one good. 122 00:06:28,320 --> 00:06:32,080 Speaker 2: Software engineering company I know in Melbourne, Flip Down in 123 00:06:32,200 --> 00:06:36,480 Speaker 2: the CBD, and they regularly interview forty people for one role, 124 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:40,240 Speaker 2: right because just the quality of candidates not there. If 125 00:06:40,279 --> 00:06:42,360 Speaker 2: you insist you need this massive structure and you need 126 00:06:42,400 --> 00:06:44,039 Speaker 2: a hierarchy for it, you're just going to have to 127 00:06:44,080 --> 00:06:46,360 Speaker 2: insert people who don't know what they're talking about. You 128 00:06:46,440 --> 00:06:50,040 Speaker 2: can't find good people fast enough, and then those people 129 00:06:50,040 --> 00:06:52,039 Speaker 2: who aren't very good to hire other people who aren't 130 00:06:52,080 --> 00:06:53,839 Speaker 2: very good, and soon that's the whole industry. 131 00:06:53,960 --> 00:06:57,760 Speaker 1: Right, and that feels something I'd be writing that will 132 00:06:57,880 --> 00:06:59,960 Speaker 1: end up being a podcast that may run before or off. 133 00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:02,919 Speaker 1: This is just this idea of shareholder supremacy, that the 134 00:07:02,920 --> 00:07:07,320 Speaker 1: companies have been engineered to make a market need work 135 00:07:07,400 --> 00:07:12,680 Speaker 1: to hit analyst expectations. Jack Welch, classic bastard. And it 136 00:07:12,720 --> 00:07:16,600 Speaker 1: feels like this that llms in particular have become the 137 00:07:16,720 --> 00:07:20,920 Speaker 1: ultimate form like the super Saiyan of rock capitalism, where 138 00:07:21,040 --> 00:07:24,000 Speaker 1: people just kind of, like you said, just bullshit about them. 139 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:26,480 Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, you can do all this shit, right, Yeah, 140 00:07:27,200 --> 00:07:30,240 Speaker 1: it's the future. What is your actual background? 141 00:07:30,920 --> 00:07:33,960 Speaker 2: So I've got a four year qualification in psychology, so 142 00:07:33,960 --> 00:07:37,480 Speaker 2: I mostly did cognitive psychology and circadian science, and then 143 00:07:37,480 --> 00:07:39,880 Speaker 2: I moved over to a postgraduate qualification at one of 144 00:07:39,920 --> 00:07:42,920 Speaker 2: Australia's bigger universities, so that was in data science. I 145 00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:45,680 Speaker 2: did Masters with a little bit of a thesis work 146 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:48,880 Speaker 2: in it, so I'm reasonably good. I'm not a PhD, 147 00:07:49,120 --> 00:07:50,840 Speaker 2: but I do know what I'm talking about. 148 00:07:50,640 --> 00:07:51,160 Speaker 3: In the space. 149 00:07:51,840 --> 00:07:53,840 Speaker 5: I did want to drill into something because you're coming 150 00:07:53,880 --> 00:07:56,440 Speaker 5: at this like from the perspective of somebody who was 151 00:07:56,480 --> 00:07:59,880 Speaker 5: working in a technical capacity, seeing the way this group 152 00:07:59,880 --> 00:08:02,360 Speaker 5: of people who are talking nonsense are coming in and, 153 00:08:02,400 --> 00:08:04,760 Speaker 5: as you said, kind of like bulldozing their way into 154 00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:08,120 Speaker 5: conversations with people. Can you talk socially about the way 155 00:08:08,160 --> 00:08:10,080 Speaker 5: that kind of happens, because we all sort of see 156 00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:13,160 Speaker 5: the way these people try to monopolize conversations about technology 157 00:08:13,200 --> 00:08:15,480 Speaker 5: at events, you know, if you're coming at it from 158 00:08:15,520 --> 00:08:17,920 Speaker 5: like press at something like CEES, but also just kind 159 00:08:17,920 --> 00:08:20,480 Speaker 5: of if you're looking at things on Twitter or looking 160 00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:23,240 Speaker 5: at just sort of the way popular conversations go. But 161 00:08:23,320 --> 00:08:27,120 Speaker 5: I'm I'm curious about like the social dynamics of these 162 00:08:27,160 --> 00:08:30,440 Speaker 5: people who are coming into organizations full of real people 163 00:08:30,800 --> 00:08:34,120 Speaker 5: trying to do real things and hijacking that for the 164 00:08:34,160 --> 00:08:35,800 Speaker 5: purpose of cashing out. 165 00:08:35,960 --> 00:08:39,120 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think a lot of them are latching onto 166 00:08:39,160 --> 00:08:41,680 Speaker 2: some pre existing level of grift that's just been in 167 00:08:41,720 --> 00:08:46,079 Speaker 2: the industry. So when I entered around twenty eighteen twenty nineteen, 168 00:08:46,120 --> 00:08:49,160 Speaker 2: that's when I got into the Australian tech market, MLMs 169 00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:51,240 Speaker 2: were not this massive thing, right. There were a couple 170 00:08:51,280 --> 00:08:53,760 Speaker 2: of GPT two demos, but there is no way for 171 00:08:53,840 --> 00:08:58,360 Speaker 2: you at a normal company to roll out something like Jenai, right, 172 00:08:58,400 --> 00:08:59,760 Speaker 2: you really had to know what you were doing. You 173 00:08:59,760 --> 00:09:02,679 Speaker 2: didn't have the resources, like you couldn't just hit an 174 00:09:02,760 --> 00:09:05,840 Speaker 2: endpoint somewhere and get a result. And I cannot emphasize 175 00:09:05,840 --> 00:09:09,960 Speaker 2: that enough for like non technical listeners, it's like two 176 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:13,040 Speaker 2: lines of Python to use open AI. People making these 177 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:16,560 Speaker 2: chatbots are not serious practitioners. I could teach like my 178 00:09:16,640 --> 00:09:19,920 Speaker 2: thirteen year old cousin how to do this, but there's 179 00:09:19,920 --> 00:09:23,400 Speaker 2: this kind of this pre existing class of person that talkslot, 180 00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:26,040 Speaker 2: gets on stages, doesn't really know what's been going on. 181 00:09:26,160 --> 00:09:28,520 Speaker 2: But they were much smaller back then. They did talk 182 00:09:28,520 --> 00:09:32,000 Speaker 2: about AI relentlessly. But the difference between twenty nineteen and 183 00:09:32,080 --> 00:09:35,760 Speaker 2: twenty twenty four is those people in twenty nineteen didn't 184 00:09:35,760 --> 00:09:39,120 Speaker 2: have any working products. They would talk and then they 185 00:09:39,160 --> 00:09:41,960 Speaker 2: would leave organizations every two years before they were on 186 00:09:42,040 --> 00:09:45,960 Speaker 2: the hook for their failed projects. The difference now is 187 00:09:46,280 --> 00:09:49,600 Speaker 2: people are going to those same people, so you just 188 00:09:49,640 --> 00:09:51,040 Speaker 2: turn up and you go, hey, I'm going to be 189 00:09:51,200 --> 00:09:53,079 Speaker 2: your lead data scientist, your chief. 190 00:09:52,960 --> 00:09:54,320 Speaker 3: Data officer, whatever you want. 191 00:09:54,840 --> 00:09:57,360 Speaker 2: I'm going to do this AI revolution for you, and 192 00:09:57,400 --> 00:09:59,960 Speaker 2: then they can very quickly ship stuff that doesn't quite work. 193 00:10:00,840 --> 00:10:04,280 Speaker 2: But organizations are really bad at tracking what actually drives revenue, 194 00:10:04,520 --> 00:10:07,320 Speaker 2: So the moment you get the flashy product out, people 195 00:10:07,320 --> 00:10:08,920 Speaker 2: think you're some sort of superhero. 196 00:10:09,840 --> 00:10:12,360 Speaker 3: Yeah. And if it's broken, yeah, absolutely so. 197 00:10:12,400 --> 00:10:14,880 Speaker 2: I've been I probably shouldn't say this, but I will 198 00:10:14,880 --> 00:10:17,400 Speaker 2: and just leave the details out. I've been leaked a 199 00:10:17,480 --> 00:10:20,920 Speaker 2: couple of confidential documents from i would say small to 200 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:24,439 Speaker 2: medium businesses on how JENNYI has worked in their chetbots. 201 00:10:24,960 --> 00:10:27,000 Speaker 2: I can't name the companies because I'm not supposed to. 202 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:29,760 Speaker 2: The documents like, it's not impressive. Even the ones that 203 00:10:29,960 --> 00:10:33,959 Speaker 2: sort of work. You get really weird statistics like interacting 204 00:10:33,960 --> 00:10:39,240 Speaker 2: with the chatbot predicts tickets being escalated to human support teams, 205 00:10:39,320 --> 00:10:40,480 Speaker 2: like way worse than usually. 206 00:10:41,160 --> 00:10:43,040 Speaker 3: But they're still rolled about, right, that's good. 207 00:10:43,120 --> 00:10:44,960 Speaker 1: So the one thing that they say, this is going 208 00:10:45,040 --> 00:10:47,880 Speaker 1: to be able to do customer service, very cool. 209 00:10:48,360 --> 00:10:49,920 Speaker 3: I definitely can't do it now. 210 00:10:50,360 --> 00:10:51,559 Speaker 1: Great Jesus. 211 00:10:51,920 --> 00:10:55,160 Speaker 5: Do you get the sense they're rolling it out even 212 00:10:55,200 --> 00:10:58,080 Speaker 5: though they're not saying an immediate like positive effect, because 213 00:10:58,160 --> 00:11:02,480 Speaker 5: the kind of effect on their potential valuation by throwing 214 00:11:02,520 --> 00:11:05,600 Speaker 5: AI in is higher than whatever they lose by having 215 00:11:05,640 --> 00:11:07,160 Speaker 5: a less efficient actual solution. 216 00:11:07,720 --> 00:11:08,719 Speaker 3: I think it's threefold. 217 00:11:09,160 --> 00:11:12,440 Speaker 2: So the first one is it's speculative, which means even 218 00:11:12,440 --> 00:11:15,040 Speaker 2: if I if I was dishonest and I thought it 219 00:11:15,080 --> 00:11:17,520 Speaker 2: was bad for the company, I might want AI on 220 00:11:17,559 --> 00:11:20,600 Speaker 2: my CV specifically, it doesn't actually have anything to do 221 00:11:20,640 --> 00:11:23,680 Speaker 2: with the company, right, it's just for me. The second 222 00:11:23,679 --> 00:11:26,240 Speaker 2: one is, yeah, there's obviously it's very easy to get funding. 223 00:11:26,800 --> 00:11:30,000 Speaker 2: Someone reached out to me a CEO of a company 224 00:11:30,040 --> 00:11:33,280 Speaker 2: that does LM work, and this person admitted to me 225 00:11:33,320 --> 00:11:35,480 Speaker 2: their product doesn't work, so they don't accept funding because 226 00:11:35,480 --> 00:11:37,280 Speaker 2: they're trying to get it to work and people are 227 00:11:37,320 --> 00:11:39,840 Speaker 2: still flinging money at them. This thing that, like self 228 00:11:39,880 --> 00:11:41,199 Speaker 2: admittedly doesn't function. 229 00:11:41,840 --> 00:11:45,400 Speaker 3: That's very cool. Yeah, it's great. It's great that the 230 00:11:45,440 --> 00:11:46,480 Speaker 3: industry is in that position. 231 00:11:47,160 --> 00:11:49,600 Speaker 5: And the last one is good for them. 232 00:11:50,840 --> 00:11:52,679 Speaker 3: The last one is, you know, the chatbot piece. 233 00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:55,840 Speaker 2: I don't work in that domain, but I kind of 234 00:11:55,880 --> 00:11:59,880 Speaker 2: wonder is it cheaper to just provide bad customer service, 235 00:12:00,120 --> 00:12:02,960 Speaker 2: lay off all your supports offf Like, when I'm trying 236 00:12:02,960 --> 00:12:05,760 Speaker 2: to cancel my mobile plan, do they actually care that 237 00:12:05,800 --> 00:12:07,440 Speaker 2: I got frustrated and put the call down? 238 00:12:07,440 --> 00:12:08,199 Speaker 3: That sounds good for. 239 00:12:08,160 --> 00:12:11,840 Speaker 5: Them, right, Well, yeah, I mean that's one of the 240 00:12:11,840 --> 00:12:14,600 Speaker 5: things that's so insane about this is that this could 241 00:12:14,640 --> 00:12:17,120 Speaker 5: work out for them. At least in I still don't 242 00:12:17,120 --> 00:12:19,600 Speaker 5: think that when you're looking kind the kind of like 243 00:12:19,640 --> 00:12:22,760 Speaker 5: the dollar amount of valuations that like open Ai is seeing, 244 00:12:22,840 --> 00:12:25,560 Speaker 5: I don't think that letting companies that don't give a 245 00:12:25,559 --> 00:12:30,200 Speaker 5: shit about customer service economize more is going to be 246 00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:32,720 Speaker 5: the size of industry that they're hoping for. You're certainly 247 00:12:32,760 --> 00:12:35,720 Speaker 5: not going to It's not trillions of dollars in value, right, 248 00:12:35,840 --> 00:12:39,120 Speaker 5: that could be a profitable business and just making everything 249 00:12:39,160 --> 00:12:41,960 Speaker 5: a little bit worse for everybody like that, that could 250 00:12:42,040 --> 00:12:46,439 Speaker 5: be a very good business to be it. Yeah, just Google, No, 251 00:12:47,400 --> 00:12:49,640 Speaker 5: I mean yeah, I mean yeah, that's Google's done well 252 00:12:49,640 --> 00:12:50,480 Speaker 5: off of that. 253 00:12:50,720 --> 00:12:54,160 Speaker 1: It's just just making things gradually, iteratively worse. 254 00:12:54,760 --> 00:12:57,640 Speaker 2: Well, I will say that I get a lot of 255 00:12:57,679 --> 00:12:59,720 Speaker 2: email from people who left Google, and you know, some 256 00:12:59,800 --> 00:13:01,680 Speaker 2: of them. It's a huge company, so they do some 257 00:13:01,800 --> 00:13:03,640 Speaker 2: useful stuff, but a lot of people were like, I 258 00:13:03,679 --> 00:13:04,960 Speaker 2: left because it sucks there now. 259 00:13:05,440 --> 00:13:07,400 Speaker 3: So that's that's definitely a thing. 260 00:13:23,440 --> 00:13:26,600 Speaker 1: So you said the data science field was large but 261 00:13:26,720 --> 00:13:30,480 Speaker 1: largely fraudulent. What exactly does that? Does it mean that 262 00:13:30,880 --> 00:13:33,200 Speaker 1: most of data science is just grifting or is it 263 00:13:33,320 --> 00:13:34,840 Speaker 1: just something a little more deep. 264 00:13:35,360 --> 00:13:38,880 Speaker 2: It's a little deeper than that. So as a as 265 00:13:38,920 --> 00:13:42,160 Speaker 2: a technical discipline, machine learning is very very serious, right. 266 00:13:42,880 --> 00:13:45,839 Speaker 2: You do see it used and genuinely helpful things. It's 267 00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:48,480 Speaker 2: probably being used right now as we're recording this. It's 268 00:13:48,480 --> 00:13:52,320 Speaker 2: somewhere in the supply chain, and you'll hear more old 269 00:13:52,360 --> 00:13:55,160 Speaker 2: cool practitioners. They get very annoyed at the words AI 270 00:13:55,200 --> 00:13:57,480 Speaker 2: and machine learning. They say things like, it's just statistics, 271 00:13:58,880 --> 00:14:01,600 Speaker 2: you know it, Ellen are obviously doing something. It would 272 00:14:01,679 --> 00:14:04,040 Speaker 2: be wrong to just say they're classical statistics and not 273 00:14:04,120 --> 00:14:08,320 Speaker 2: impressive in any way. But when I say it's grifting, 274 00:14:08,440 --> 00:14:12,119 Speaker 2: I mean this whole artificial intelligence thing. The people deciding 275 00:14:12,200 --> 00:14:15,000 Speaker 2: on the size of the data science market are not technicians, 276 00:14:15,320 --> 00:14:18,640 Speaker 2: so when you say AI, they're thinking Skynet, generative AI, 277 00:14:19,680 --> 00:14:22,560 Speaker 2: general intelligence. Like they really have no idea what they're 278 00:14:22,600 --> 00:14:25,720 Speaker 2: hiring for. But they'll do things like say we need 279 00:14:25,720 --> 00:14:28,080 Speaker 2: to hire twenty data scientists tomorrow, right, like that's. 280 00:14:28,040 --> 00:14:31,080 Speaker 1: Right, without really knowing what they do with them, no. 281 00:14:31,040 --> 00:14:33,080 Speaker 2: Idea what they do with them. And it's really hard 282 00:14:33,120 --> 00:14:36,560 Speaker 2: to solve problems with data science, right. It is entirely 283 00:14:36,600 --> 00:14:42,000 Speaker 2: possible to have a problem that is fundamentally intractable, no 284 00:14:42,040 --> 00:14:45,200 Speaker 2: matter how discipline your team is because the data doesn't exist, 285 00:14:45,640 --> 00:14:48,200 Speaker 2: or the problem's just too hard mathematically. 286 00:14:48,280 --> 00:14:49,240 Speaker 3: That happens all the time. 287 00:14:50,360 --> 00:14:52,320 Speaker 1: It almost feels like the problem with the tech industry 288 00:14:52,400 --> 00:14:56,800 Speaker 1: is that nobody knows what they're doing. You have people 289 00:14:56,840 --> 00:15:01,920 Speaker 1: that know stuff, how to do things, and then they 290 00:15:02,360 --> 00:15:05,040 Speaker 1: get a job at Google in a pile of people 291 00:15:05,120 --> 00:15:09,600 Speaker 1: that can do stuff run by someone who goes all right, dickheads, 292 00:15:09,920 --> 00:15:13,560 Speaker 1: put the AI in it now, and then stuff comes out. 293 00:15:13,640 --> 00:15:15,800 Speaker 1: It almost like the problem you mentioned earlier of just 294 00:15:16,040 --> 00:15:19,160 Speaker 1: they're not being enough good people also appears to be 295 00:15:19,320 --> 00:15:20,640 Speaker 1: there are no good managers. 296 00:15:21,280 --> 00:15:23,880 Speaker 5: I wonder kind of pivoting or not pivoting, But building 297 00:15:23,920 --> 00:15:25,880 Speaker 5: on that, I wonder how much of it is that 298 00:15:25,920 --> 00:15:27,840 Speaker 5: the guys who are really good at keeping the hype 299 00:15:27,840 --> 00:15:30,840 Speaker 5: going are also just better socially than the kind of 300 00:15:30,840 --> 00:15:33,040 Speaker 5: people who are really good at coding and are really 301 00:15:33,080 --> 00:15:36,360 Speaker 5: good at the actual like science, Like if some of 302 00:15:36,400 --> 00:15:39,800 Speaker 5: the being bulldozed effect is that the people who really 303 00:15:39,800 --> 00:15:42,400 Speaker 5: know their shit just are not used to the kind 304 00:15:42,480 --> 00:15:45,840 Speaker 5: of energy that a hype man is capable of deploying 305 00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:46,680 Speaker 5: against them. 306 00:15:47,040 --> 00:15:49,760 Speaker 2: Yeah, so this has come up. I've thought about this 307 00:15:49,840 --> 00:15:53,280 Speaker 2: a lot. So that's a kind of component of engineering. 308 00:15:53,320 --> 00:15:56,440 Speaker 2: I work on a lot not hyping myself up, but 309 00:15:56,640 --> 00:15:59,960 Speaker 2: actually being able to hold conversations. But that's not quite 310 00:16:00,120 --> 00:16:03,840 Speaker 2: the attribute I see in the managers who do this 311 00:16:03,960 --> 00:16:06,960 Speaker 2: kind of thing, because what you're describing is like a 312 00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:10,400 Speaker 2: pure conman. And at least and not to be mean 313 00:16:10,400 --> 00:16:12,400 Speaker 2: to people who aren't comment but I'm leaking, like at 314 00:16:12,440 --> 00:16:14,840 Speaker 2: least there's some skill in that. But what we're talking 315 00:16:14,880 --> 00:16:15,960 Speaker 2: about is they. 316 00:16:15,880 --> 00:16:19,360 Speaker 5: Just like this is where Steve Jobs comes in, right, 317 00:16:19,400 --> 00:16:21,600 Speaker 5: there's a version of this that requires talent. 318 00:16:21,800 --> 00:16:25,720 Speaker 2: Right right, Like it may not be talented, I respect 319 00:16:25,840 --> 00:16:28,240 Speaker 2: like morally, but I'm like that it's an actual skill set. 320 00:16:28,480 --> 00:16:31,440 Speaker 2: But we're talking about people who have really just learned 321 00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:35,680 Speaker 2: how to like mimic the trappings of success and responsibility. 322 00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:39,240 Speaker 2: You know, they're real big on suits, they're real big 323 00:16:39,360 --> 00:16:46,360 Speaker 2: on talking very slowly with long pauses, but like they 324 00:16:46,400 --> 00:16:47,480 Speaker 2: don't have novel thoughts. 325 00:16:48,960 --> 00:16:50,240 Speaker 3: Their brain has just had. 326 00:16:50,080 --> 00:16:53,280 Speaker 2: Like Forbes magazine flashed onto it like there's nothing else there. 327 00:16:55,400 --> 00:16:58,080 Speaker 3: So maybe talking about social skill and bulldozing, I'm. 328 00:16:57,920 --> 00:17:03,760 Speaker 6: Not talking about the war, right, and you know, we're 329 00:17:03,760 --> 00:17:06,520 Speaker 6: not talking about people who are doing this very savvy 330 00:17:06,640 --> 00:17:09,120 Speaker 6: political piece where they finesse things, and you know, it's 331 00:17:09,240 --> 00:17:13,800 Speaker 6: very machiavellian. We're talking about people who just turn up 332 00:17:14,040 --> 00:17:15,520 Speaker 6: and if you point out they don't know what they're 333 00:17:15,560 --> 00:17:16,480 Speaker 6: talking about. 334 00:17:16,840 --> 00:17:19,520 Speaker 2: They're a fucking dick to you. And they do this 335 00:17:19,640 --> 00:17:22,280 Speaker 2: until you leave them alone, and that's their whole career. 336 00:17:22,400 --> 00:17:26,000 Speaker 2: The industry is just full of that. They're not even smart. 337 00:17:26,040 --> 00:17:28,960 Speaker 2: I have seen an executive at a restaurant order the 338 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:32,400 Speaker 2: wrong dish, have their family eat the whole thing, then 339 00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:34,760 Speaker 2: tell the weight stuff that like, hey, you brought us 340 00:17:34,800 --> 00:17:37,080 Speaker 2: the wrong thing, and when a kid piped out, they 341 00:17:37,119 --> 00:17:37,880 Speaker 2: shushed the kid. 342 00:17:38,680 --> 00:17:38,919 Speaker 3: You know. 343 00:17:39,080 --> 00:17:43,320 Speaker 2: It's it's not like a talent that they have cultivated 344 00:17:43,320 --> 00:17:46,840 Speaker 2: in the menagerial space. It's like personality disorder that just 345 00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:48,040 Speaker 2: leads into everything. 346 00:17:47,720 --> 00:17:50,040 Speaker 1: In ruins in a reality. 347 00:17:51,800 --> 00:17:54,080 Speaker 3: How I want. 348 00:17:52,920 --> 00:17:56,840 Speaker 5: It's some of it is because like I talk about 349 00:17:56,920 --> 00:17:58,879 Speaker 5: jobs a lot, and I think you have to because 350 00:17:59,119 --> 00:18:01,120 Speaker 5: a lot of these guys, if not all of them, 351 00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:04,119 Speaker 5: at some level wish they were him, right with the 352 00:18:04,160 --> 00:18:06,879 Speaker 5: exception of the not you know, the medical issue, but 353 00:18:06,960 --> 00:18:10,520 Speaker 5: like they's he's like mythologized to a significant degree. Especially 354 00:18:10,680 --> 00:18:13,800 Speaker 5: I'm recording from San Francisco right now. I mean He's 355 00:18:13,800 --> 00:18:17,840 Speaker 5: almost like a saint down here, and I feel like 356 00:18:17,880 --> 00:18:20,440 Speaker 5: the act of copying him, you get these people who 357 00:18:20,440 --> 00:18:24,280 Speaker 5: are like carbon copies of just the personality disorder without 358 00:18:24,320 --> 00:18:27,000 Speaker 5: any of the actual insight. And I think that's like 359 00:18:27,240 --> 00:18:30,080 Speaker 5: further exacerbated because they're all like, yeah, read the Art 360 00:18:30,119 --> 00:18:33,359 Speaker 5: of War, read like one of three Malcolm Gladwell books, 361 00:18:33,800 --> 00:18:36,920 Speaker 5: Read The Four Hour Body, and do not read anything else. 362 00:18:37,040 --> 00:18:39,920 Speaker 5: There's no humanities, there's nothing like because all you need 363 00:18:39,920 --> 00:18:42,280 Speaker 5: to learn how to do is be the most optimized 364 00:18:42,320 --> 00:18:43,240 Speaker 5: asshole you can be. 365 00:18:44,040 --> 00:18:46,159 Speaker 2: I like, how you just pick the If I had 366 00:18:46,240 --> 00:18:51,600 Speaker 2: hit Man budget, like that would be my list as 367 00:18:51,640 --> 00:18:55,080 Speaker 2: a data sideist. Malcolm Glenwell, Like I might need him 368 00:18:55,080 --> 00:18:56,680 Speaker 2: more than anyone on the planet. 369 00:18:57,080 --> 00:19:00,000 Speaker 5: Oh, I'm right there with you, buddy. He's he's been advertise, 370 00:19:00,240 --> 00:19:04,199 Speaker 5: I got our shows and oh man, I don't love it. 371 00:19:04,640 --> 00:19:05,520 Speaker 4: I don't love it. 372 00:19:07,040 --> 00:19:09,720 Speaker 1: So with that in mind, Nick, what do you think 373 00:19:09,720 --> 00:19:10,520 Speaker 1: of Sam Oltman. 374 00:19:11,200 --> 00:19:14,040 Speaker 2: I don't really know a whole bunch about him because 375 00:19:14,560 --> 00:19:16,720 Speaker 2: out here in Melbourne, I don't really play around in 376 00:19:16,760 --> 00:19:18,240 Speaker 2: the fang super huge space. 377 00:19:18,440 --> 00:19:18,640 Speaker 3: Right. 378 00:19:18,640 --> 00:19:21,680 Speaker 2: Our clients are relatively small. I work at like medium 379 00:19:21,680 --> 00:19:25,720 Speaker 2: sized businesses, tiny compared to the size of Google and 380 00:19:25,800 --> 00:19:30,400 Speaker 2: open AI. All I will say is, if he said 381 00:19:30,440 --> 00:19:34,679 Speaker 2: what you just said about physics, like, he needs to 382 00:19:34,680 --> 00:19:37,560 Speaker 2: come out with the greatest innovation I've ever seen in 383 00:19:37,640 --> 00:19:39,760 Speaker 2: the next two years, or he will be one of 384 00:19:39,800 --> 00:19:42,119 Speaker 2: the most insane people I've ever heard of, right, Like, 385 00:19:42,160 --> 00:19:45,240 Speaker 2: that's he really has to deliver on that statement, or 386 00:19:45,280 --> 00:19:46,600 Speaker 2: he's obviously full of shit. 387 00:19:47,119 --> 00:19:49,439 Speaker 1: It just it blows me away that he's even able 388 00:19:49,520 --> 00:19:51,679 Speaker 1: to say it without someone just being like, what the 389 00:19:51,720 --> 00:19:54,879 Speaker 1: fuck you talking about? Sam Oltman? Sam Oltman, did you 390 00:19:54,960 --> 00:19:57,800 Speaker 1: hit your head somewhere on the way here? Because it's 391 00:19:57,840 --> 00:20:00,439 Speaker 1: not even the first insane thing he said. He has 392 00:20:00,480 --> 00:20:02,960 Speaker 1: said so many times. I was super smart. It's going 393 00:20:03,040 --> 00:20:05,479 Speaker 1: to be a super smart friend that knows everything about you? 394 00:20:06,080 --> 00:20:08,400 Speaker 1: The fuck are you talking? What does any of this mean? 395 00:20:08,520 --> 00:20:10,879 Speaker 1: And my own frustration I've shared about the media is 396 00:20:10,920 --> 00:20:13,800 Speaker 1: that no one ever seems to say the appropriate thing, 397 00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:17,960 Speaker 1: which is wait, what was that? Excuse me, mate? What? 398 00:20:18,520 --> 00:20:21,359 Speaker 1: But it almost feels with everything you're talking about, and 399 00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:24,240 Speaker 1: in your excellent blog that also feels like the problem 400 00:20:24,280 --> 00:20:27,240 Speaker 1: You've just got these guys who just say things raise 401 00:20:27,400 --> 00:20:32,439 Speaker 1: money go up in organizations and don't actually do anything like, 402 00:20:32,520 --> 00:20:37,080 Speaker 1: Samulman did not make gpt someone else did that. Mirror 403 00:20:37,160 --> 00:20:39,920 Speaker 1: Morati did not do it. Cto of open Ai didn't 404 00:20:39,920 --> 00:20:40,520 Speaker 1: do it either. 405 00:20:41,040 --> 00:20:44,400 Speaker 4: It's just so strong. It feels like we're living in. 406 00:20:44,359 --> 00:20:47,439 Speaker 1: An alternate reality at times, and it's freaking me out. 407 00:20:47,440 --> 00:20:50,040 Speaker 1: I wan to be honest, it's I'm putting on the 408 00:20:50,040 --> 00:20:52,840 Speaker 1: clown makeup, the joker makeup almost every day now. 409 00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:58,159 Speaker 2: Was Miramuradi the one who couldn't answer that question on 410 00:20:58,280 --> 00:21:01,480 Speaker 2: whether they used YouTube to try, Yes, I mean. 411 00:21:01,440 --> 00:21:04,760 Speaker 5: Yes, yes, she sure couldn't. And I found at least 412 00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:07,680 Speaker 5: I watched the video with captions while we were doing 413 00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:10,480 Speaker 5: this with sam Altman, and the exact statement was basically, 414 00:21:10,720 --> 00:21:15,560 Speaker 5: someday you'll be able to ask chat gpt U discover 415 00:21:15,680 --> 00:21:20,680 Speaker 5: physics for me. It'll do it, discover all the physics 416 00:21:20,680 --> 00:21:22,399 Speaker 5: something like that. I've got the link in there, but 417 00:21:22,520 --> 00:21:26,359 Speaker 5: like just just a nonsense statement, like at least at 418 00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:28,240 Speaker 5: least go to make it. You could make like star 419 00:21:28,320 --> 00:21:31,000 Speaker 5: Trek claims, right, like that's the rational end of this. 420 00:21:31,080 --> 00:21:32,680 Speaker 5: I don't know that it'll actually be that good, but 421 00:21:32,800 --> 00:21:34,439 Speaker 5: be like, one day I'll have a computer and you 422 00:21:34,440 --> 00:21:36,080 Speaker 5: can tell it to do all these things and it'll 423 00:21:36,200 --> 00:21:39,600 Speaker 5: it'll organize your life and answer questions, it'll run complex systems, 424 00:21:39,600 --> 00:21:43,239 Speaker 5: and it'll let us explore space. That's nonsense too, probably at 425 00:21:43,320 --> 00:21:46,159 Speaker 5: least in any kind of near term, but it's at 426 00:21:46,240 --> 00:21:48,879 Speaker 5: least a thing that theoretically could happen, as opposed to 427 00:21:48,960 --> 00:21:51,240 Speaker 5: just telling a robot to discover physics for you. 428 00:21:51,320 --> 00:21:55,560 Speaker 1: And he says, computer solve all of physics for me, 429 00:21:56,000 --> 00:21:57,520 Speaker 1: which is so funny. 430 00:21:57,960 --> 00:21:59,840 Speaker 5: Right, And it's not what anyone Also, it's just not 431 00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:02,240 Speaker 5: I don't know, I don't need to go into. 432 00:22:02,080 --> 00:22:04,680 Speaker 1: The physics works. You don't solve physics. 433 00:22:04,920 --> 00:22:07,680 Speaker 5: You don't solve physics. And it's not what's appealing about 434 00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:10,240 Speaker 5: the Star Trek dream of a computer that works the 435 00:22:10,280 --> 00:22:12,639 Speaker 5: way the ones on those ships do, right, Like it's 436 00:22:13,240 --> 00:22:17,680 Speaker 5: the the enticing thing is the idea of like technology 437 00:22:17,720 --> 00:22:20,520 Speaker 5: that is hopeful and still needs humans at the center 438 00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:22,560 Speaker 5: of it. And I don't know, he doesn't seem to 439 00:22:22,600 --> 00:22:25,240 Speaker 5: know how to like promise anything but the elimination of 440 00:22:25,640 --> 00:22:30,119 Speaker 5: human creativity interest action, which I guess is part of 441 00:22:30,119 --> 00:22:31,760 Speaker 5: what I find disturbing about him. 442 00:22:31,880 --> 00:22:35,200 Speaker 2: It also, you know, that's obviously something that is said 443 00:22:35,280 --> 00:22:39,760 Speaker 2: to drive stock prices at various companies, right, it is 444 00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:42,760 Speaker 2: like no one believes that, Like, it can't be the case. 445 00:22:43,240 --> 00:22:45,920 Speaker 2: Even the people investing don't believe that, because if you 446 00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:49,359 Speaker 2: could get a computer to solve physics, stock prices wouldn't 447 00:22:49,359 --> 00:22:52,360 Speaker 2: matter anywhere, right, So that can't be why you're investing. 448 00:22:53,720 --> 00:22:56,680 Speaker 1: I just don't know that statement. I haven't really thought 449 00:22:56,720 --> 00:22:59,040 Speaker 1: about too much before right now, but I can't get 450 00:22:59,080 --> 00:23:02,120 Speaker 1: over the oder of soul physics. Like it's a statement 451 00:23:02,240 --> 00:23:04,399 Speaker 1: said by someone who doesn't know what they're talking about 452 00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:06,320 Speaker 1: for other people who don't know what they're talking about 453 00:23:06,359 --> 00:23:08,440 Speaker 1: to go, damn, this boy's smart. 454 00:23:08,680 --> 00:23:10,960 Speaker 5: It kind of makes me suspect ed that he thinks 455 00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:13,800 Speaker 5: about like writing a novel that way too well. The 456 00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:17,280 Speaker 5: author could just solve you know, Wuthering Heights, right, he 457 00:23:17,280 --> 00:23:19,320 Speaker 5: could have the chet GPT do it. 458 00:23:19,760 --> 00:23:20,880 Speaker 4: She could have Jeff PT. 459 00:23:21,280 --> 00:23:26,760 Speaker 1: He would have survived. In my book, yeah, those kids 460 00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:29,160 Speaker 1: would have been safe. In The Brothers Karmels. 461 00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:33,240 Speaker 5: Of Jed GPT accidentally pulled too much from dev into it, 462 00:23:33,320 --> 00:23:36,240 Speaker 5: and the Gatsby ends with some Captain Kirk and Spock 463 00:23:36,320 --> 00:23:37,720 Speaker 5: im preg fanfic. 464 00:23:39,359 --> 00:23:41,760 Speaker 3: The most curs ever heard. 465 00:23:44,600 --> 00:23:48,200 Speaker 1: But that's the thing. It doesn't feel like anything's being 466 00:23:48,320 --> 00:23:50,480 Speaker 1: done about this shit? What was it the end of 467 00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:54,239 Speaker 1: twenty twenty two GPT popped up and now like what 468 00:23:54,359 --> 00:23:57,240 Speaker 1: was like a year and a half into it, I'm like, oh, great, 469 00:23:57,280 --> 00:24:00,639 Speaker 1: I can get a pregnant picture of Garfield with an 470 00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:05,000 Speaker 1: AK forty seven. Great. Now what And you actually kind 471 00:24:05,040 --> 00:24:07,840 Speaker 1: of made not an identical point. I don't think the 472 00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:10,359 Speaker 1: Garfield npreg stuff was in there. I have to look again. 473 00:24:10,720 --> 00:24:12,800 Speaker 1: But you made a similar point where it's like, as 474 00:24:12,840 --> 00:24:16,399 Speaker 1: a company, you probably don't need AI or you're already 475 00:24:16,480 --> 00:24:16,800 Speaker 1: using it. 476 00:24:17,359 --> 00:24:20,560 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean it's just baked into the software 477 00:24:20,600 --> 00:24:20,960 Speaker 2: you use. 478 00:24:21,040 --> 00:24:21,240 Speaker 3: Right. 479 00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:22,840 Speaker 2: So we did a little bit of work for a 480 00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:26,800 Speaker 2: managed security provider down here in Melbourne. They have AI 481 00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:30,360 Speaker 2: in their supply chain, but they don't need data scientists 482 00:24:30,359 --> 00:24:33,200 Speaker 2: and specialists doing it here. Right. They've got some vendor 483 00:24:33,280 --> 00:24:36,639 Speaker 2: way upstream, very small company that hires a couple of PhDs. 484 00:24:37,359 --> 00:24:40,199 Speaker 2: They write some algorithms which are not llm's, just like 485 00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:43,640 Speaker 2: all school statistical computing to detect when someone's like trying 486 00:24:43,680 --> 00:24:44,680 Speaker 2: to get into your network. 487 00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:46,800 Speaker 3: You just buy the product from them, right, you. 488 00:24:46,840 --> 00:24:48,680 Speaker 2: Just sit there And it's the same way we get 489 00:24:48,720 --> 00:24:52,160 Speaker 2: benefits out of Zoom and YouTube and Twitter or whatever 490 00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:54,359 Speaker 2: the heck, right, like there's just some stuff baked in 491 00:24:54,400 --> 00:24:56,080 Speaker 2: the back, like you know, have to stress about it. 492 00:24:56,080 --> 00:24:58,760 Speaker 2: It is insane how many companies that have no business 493 00:24:58,840 --> 00:25:01,520 Speaker 2: playing in the space are doing this stuff instead of 494 00:25:01,520 --> 00:25:04,920 Speaker 2: figuring out things like, you know, staff retention averages one year, 495 00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:06,920 Speaker 2: how do we get it up to seven? They don't 496 00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:09,520 Speaker 2: worry about that because they're just fixated on this A 497 00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:12,320 Speaker 2: I think, I'm I need to calm down because I 498 00:25:12,720 --> 00:25:14,359 Speaker 2: bus say I'm going to strangle the next person to 499 00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:16,800 Speaker 2: mention it, but it might come across as more of 500 00:25:16,840 --> 00:25:17,639 Speaker 2: a legal threat. 501 00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:21,200 Speaker 1: Calming down is not how better offline works. My Aura 502 00:25:21,320 --> 00:25:24,640 Speaker 1: ring tells me, I'm working out during the show, so 503 00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:28,720 Speaker 1: I don't have it on today, sadly. But you mentioned 504 00:25:28,800 --> 00:25:31,119 Speaker 1: that they should be doing other things, and you actually 505 00:25:31,160 --> 00:25:34,159 Speaker 1: mentioned in the piece as well, the companies aren't like 506 00:25:34,640 --> 00:25:37,720 Speaker 1: checking their backups to make sure they work. What should 507 00:25:37,840 --> 00:25:40,359 Speaker 1: organizations actually be doing instead of AI. 508 00:25:41,080 --> 00:25:43,560 Speaker 2: Just turn their brains on for like twenty seconds, you know, 509 00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:47,200 Speaker 2: like it's not hard. They're just so hyper fixated on this. 510 00:25:47,640 --> 00:25:50,560 Speaker 2: It's not AI. If it's not lllm's or JENAI. It 511 00:25:50,600 --> 00:25:52,520 Speaker 2: was like older AI. I mean, it's not that it's blockchain, 512 00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:54,840 Speaker 2: it's not that it's quantum. I went to a talk 513 00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:57,639 Speaker 2: at a big conference called I would really put them 514 00:25:57,640 --> 00:26:00,800 Speaker 2: on last year. It went to something Digital Queensland. Last 515 00:26:00,880 --> 00:26:02,439 Speaker 2: year it was dystopian. 516 00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:03,120 Speaker 3: It was just. 517 00:26:03,320 --> 00:26:07,159 Speaker 2: Entirely filled with like non technicians. The stage is just 518 00:26:07,160 --> 00:26:09,919 Speaker 2: filled by people lying to them and half the products 519 00:26:09,920 --> 00:26:12,520 Speaker 2: are about quantum. And that whole talk, they never explained 520 00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:14,440 Speaker 2: what quantum was, right. They were just like, quantum is 521 00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:17,520 Speaker 2: going to revolutionize everything, and I'm in the audience being 522 00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:19,399 Speaker 2: what the hell does that even mean? Right, what do 523 00:26:19,480 --> 00:26:22,080 Speaker 2: you mean quantum? But yeah, what they should be doing, 524 00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:25,359 Speaker 2: it's just like really basic fundamental stuff, right, It's not 525 00:26:25,400 --> 00:26:27,680 Speaker 2: even interesting, which is why no one wants to do it, 526 00:26:28,440 --> 00:26:32,320 Speaker 2: because you can't like rocket ship your way to CEO 527 00:26:32,400 --> 00:26:34,600 Speaker 2: by doing this stuff. But like you need to figure 528 00:26:34,600 --> 00:26:36,639 Speaker 2: out how to like get your teams out of more meetings. 529 00:26:36,960 --> 00:26:38,800 Speaker 2: You need to actually spend time with people on the 530 00:26:38,800 --> 00:26:40,880 Speaker 2: ground and ask them what needs changing in the business. 531 00:26:41,720 --> 00:26:43,640 Speaker 2: You don't need AI to figure all that stuff out. 532 00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:45,600 Speaker 2: Just ask a guy who's been there for a while. 533 00:26:46,800 --> 00:26:49,520 Speaker 2: It's all pretty common sense, and AI is really pulling 534 00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:51,760 Speaker 2: away from that. We talk a lot about the investment 535 00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:56,080 Speaker 2: in AIS a waste of money, but there's probably like 536 00:26:56,359 --> 00:26:59,560 Speaker 2: just as much unrealized opportunity cost in people just wasting 537 00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:02,240 Speaker 2: my time meetings about it, right, like we could just 538 00:27:02,280 --> 00:27:04,000 Speaker 2: be doing something else. 539 00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:07,040 Speaker 3: I just got back from a trip to Fiji. 540 00:27:07,080 --> 00:27:10,359 Speaker 2: And I was volunteered for a tiny bit with my 541 00:27:10,359 --> 00:27:12,920 Speaker 2: girlfriend and animal's Fiji so they can treat a dog 542 00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:17,680 Speaker 2: for about thirty Australian dollars. Can you imagine how many 543 00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:20,040 Speaker 2: dead dogs Open Aye has produced? 544 00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:22,480 Speaker 4: Like you could just oh my god, you could just. 545 00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:26,520 Speaker 2: Away them, right, it's gonna be hundreds of tons like that. 546 00:27:26,720 --> 00:27:27,640 Speaker 3: That's not the way way. 547 00:27:27,680 --> 00:27:29,879 Speaker 1: Way be a little more specific. How did Open Eye 548 00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:30,719 Speaker 1: kill the dogs? 549 00:27:31,400 --> 00:27:33,159 Speaker 3: Well, because we could have just spent the money on 550 00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:37,240 Speaker 3: the dogs, right, Like you just say, you do the math, right? 551 00:27:38,320 --> 00:27:40,320 Speaker 4: This many dogs worth of potential? 552 00:27:40,560 --> 00:27:43,159 Speaker 1: Yeah? Life putting that in the document of if I 553 00:27:43,200 --> 00:27:48,800 Speaker 1: ever get the Sam Oltman interview, Yeah, Sam, talk to 554 00:27:48,840 --> 00:27:51,000 Speaker 1: someone who said thirty bugs I can help a dog? 555 00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:54,120 Speaker 1: How many dogs would you kill to bring KGI to life? 556 00:27:56,560 --> 00:27:56,960 Speaker 4: Atally? 557 00:27:57,000 --> 00:27:59,480 Speaker 5: That's a great one of those things because people there's 558 00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:02,000 Speaker 5: that talk about how much power does it? Used to 559 00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:04,520 Speaker 5: ask a question of chant gpt. How much water are 560 00:28:04,560 --> 00:28:08,080 Speaker 5: we basically pouring on the ground every time we use 561 00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:13,200 Speaker 5: these models? And it's you could say the same things 562 00:28:13,200 --> 00:28:17,760 Speaker 5: about every useless thing humans do, but like we mostly don't, 563 00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:20,560 Speaker 5: right Like. I can say that about like warhammer models, 564 00:28:20,560 --> 00:28:22,199 Speaker 5: but at the end of the day, you get a 565 00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:25,199 Speaker 5: warhammer model, right Like, that's why people keep buying that 566 00:28:25,240 --> 00:28:27,240 Speaker 5: shit as opposed to like at the end of the day, 567 00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:31,199 Speaker 5: I think a lot of the the ultimate result of 568 00:28:31,240 --> 00:28:33,760 Speaker 5: a shitload of what's going on in ai AI right 569 00:28:33,800 --> 00:28:36,720 Speaker 5: now is that briefly a lot of people, hopefully briefly, 570 00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:39,720 Speaker 5: a shitload of people lose their jobs and customer service 571 00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:43,560 Speaker 5: gets wildly worse, maybe forever, right Like, That's. 572 00:28:43,360 --> 00:28:45,120 Speaker 4: That's what we're giving it up for. I would rather 573 00:28:45,160 --> 00:28:46,000 Speaker 4: have little models. 574 00:28:46,560 --> 00:28:47,280 Speaker 3: Yeah. 575 00:28:47,320 --> 00:28:50,000 Speaker 2: Also, no one's turning up in the public service and 576 00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:52,280 Speaker 2: going I need ten million dollars to hire someone to 577 00:28:52,280 --> 00:28:53,920 Speaker 2: paint ultramarines. 578 00:28:53,400 --> 00:28:54,560 Speaker 3: Right like that right? Not right? 579 00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:57,920 Speaker 4: They should be maybe in the UK that. 580 00:28:57,880 --> 00:29:01,560 Speaker 3: Would be a better use. At least someone's having fun. 581 00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:17,760 Speaker 1: You kind of hinted at this in the piece, but 582 00:29:18,600 --> 00:29:21,280 Speaker 1: where does this actually go? Because it feels like we're 583 00:29:21,320 --> 00:29:24,760 Speaker 1: hitting a wall with what lllms can do, and there's 584 00:29:24,800 --> 00:29:27,920 Speaker 1: all of this hype, but there's not that much stuff 585 00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:32,080 Speaker 1: that's come out of it. What happens. You named a 586 00:29:32,120 --> 00:29:36,479 Speaker 1: few scenarios, the first being like magic, like just it 587 00:29:36,520 --> 00:29:37,720 Speaker 1: gets better in two years. 588 00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:43,080 Speaker 2: But otherwise, Yeah, I think realistically the hype just dies 589 00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:46,080 Speaker 2: down and a lot of people are very very embarrassed 590 00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:49,200 Speaker 2: by their overinvestment in the space. You'd hope that's the case. 591 00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:51,880 Speaker 2: It's very possible they'll just kind of get away with 592 00:29:51,920 --> 00:29:55,719 Speaker 2: it and drift their way into something else, especially you know, 593 00:29:56,120 --> 00:29:58,240 Speaker 2: if all their CEO friends did the same thing, I 594 00:29:58,240 --> 00:30:01,440 Speaker 2: don't know who holds them accountable, especially if they're the 595 00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:04,160 Speaker 2: board was you know, it's a bit like arguing with 596 00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:07,760 Speaker 2: people who are like late stage Trump supporters, and it's 597 00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:10,560 Speaker 2: not that they necessarily agree with things he's saying at 598 00:30:10,560 --> 00:30:10,960 Speaker 2: this point. 599 00:30:11,600 --> 00:30:13,880 Speaker 3: I hope that's not too political for this podcast. 600 00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:18,720 Speaker 2: Like yeah, it's just that they've said so many embarrassing 601 00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:20,600 Speaker 2: things that it's like too late to back out now 602 00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:24,600 Speaker 2: that you can't even if you write theory, you're like, Okay, 603 00:30:24,600 --> 00:30:27,080 Speaker 2: you know what he just said something insane. You can't 604 00:30:27,120 --> 00:30:29,800 Speaker 2: admit that you've been saying insane things for four years, 605 00:30:29,960 --> 00:30:33,040 Speaker 2: you know, so you're kind of locked in. Yeah, I 606 00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:36,239 Speaker 2: think the magic scenario is possible. You know, Open Eye 607 00:30:36,240 --> 00:30:39,400 Speaker 2: has tons of money and a lot of PhDs, but 608 00:30:39,720 --> 00:30:41,959 Speaker 2: you know they've got they've got people there who know 609 00:30:41,960 --> 00:30:43,680 Speaker 2: more about the field than I do. Maybe they've got 610 00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:46,880 Speaker 2: something in the wings that's incredible, but I mean we 611 00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:49,440 Speaker 2: would there's no need to speculate on that, right, They'll 612 00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:50,040 Speaker 2: just show us. 613 00:30:50,040 --> 00:30:53,840 Speaker 3: If they've got something, Yes, do it, Yeah, just do it. 614 00:30:53,880 --> 00:30:54,800 Speaker 3: We don't need to speculate. 615 00:30:55,480 --> 00:30:57,240 Speaker 2: And if they do it, I don't even know if 616 00:30:57,280 --> 00:31:01,320 Speaker 2: investing makes sense because I don't know if like in 617 00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:05,800 Speaker 2: that universe, stock markets make sense, right, because they're really 618 00:31:05,880 --> 00:31:09,000 Speaker 2: talking about a level of innovation that would do away 619 00:31:09,080 --> 00:31:11,920 Speaker 2: with all human labor, So it's all doesn't make sense 620 00:31:11,960 --> 00:31:14,960 Speaker 2: to put money into them. Then it's all very very strange. 621 00:31:15,440 --> 00:31:18,640 Speaker 2: What I'm hoping for, to quote my co director ash Leally, 622 00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:21,320 Speaker 2: the people who did this are going to be the 623 00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:24,320 Speaker 2: ex body spray of CEOs, Like we'll just be done with. 624 00:31:26,160 --> 00:31:27,640 Speaker 3: We'll just remember the investment. 625 00:31:28,040 --> 00:31:30,400 Speaker 2: We'll have all the snippets of them getting on their 626 00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:33,480 Speaker 2: ted X stages and then hopefully we'll never work with 627 00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:33,880 Speaker 2: them ever. 628 00:31:33,920 --> 00:31:35,680 Speaker 3: Again, Yeah, Boob. 629 00:31:36,200 --> 00:31:38,800 Speaker 1: Will like, well, it feels like they'll find another grift. 630 00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:42,080 Speaker 1: But I think that's really the question. So it's not quantum, 631 00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:45,760 Speaker 1: it's not blog chain, it's not AI. What the hell 632 00:31:45,840 --> 00:31:49,440 Speaker 1: is next? Like? What now? Where does all of this 633 00:31:49,640 --> 00:31:52,560 Speaker 1: money and hype go? This is the thing that I 634 00:31:53,240 --> 00:31:56,640 Speaker 1: feel crazy about. A number of things drive me crazy. 635 00:31:57,440 --> 00:31:59,680 Speaker 1: It's just where does it go from here? What is 636 00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:03,800 Speaker 1: the next thing that people even can invest in organizations? 637 00:32:04,360 --> 00:32:04,760 Speaker 3: Yeah? 638 00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:06,600 Speaker 2: Well, I mean you know, quantum and blockchain were not 639 00:32:06,720 --> 00:32:09,320 Speaker 2: very predictable, nor were not the elms. There would there 640 00:32:09,520 --> 00:32:14,240 Speaker 2: be something, yeah, nerdifiable, And I suspect it's very possible 641 00:32:14,280 --> 00:32:16,840 Speaker 2: the bubble will not be allowed to pop until there 642 00:32:16,920 --> 00:32:19,480 Speaker 2: is a new thing because I think the people making 643 00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:21,040 Speaker 2: this investment also control when. 644 00:32:21,440 --> 00:32:25,479 Speaker 5: Yeah, the end, it's a load bearing bubble, right, like yeah, 645 00:32:25,520 --> 00:32:27,240 Speaker 5: when this things fall down. 646 00:32:28,160 --> 00:32:30,960 Speaker 1: But when you say they won't allow it to what 647 00:32:31,080 --> 00:32:31,640 Speaker 1: do you mean? 648 00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:35,720 Speaker 2: I just have no idea how long the kind of 649 00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:40,120 Speaker 2: investor class involved in this can just keep pumping money 650 00:32:40,120 --> 00:32:42,200 Speaker 2: into it, right, I have no idea if they're on 651 00:32:42,280 --> 00:32:45,880 Speaker 2: their last legs. I don't have a background in international finance. 652 00:32:46,240 --> 00:32:48,400 Speaker 2: I don't know where the money's coming from it's coming 653 00:32:48,440 --> 00:32:50,400 Speaker 2: from somewhere. I don't understand because I know they're not 654 00:32:50,440 --> 00:32:54,040 Speaker 2: making profits right so right, So I don't know if 655 00:32:54,040 --> 00:32:55,840 Speaker 2: they could keep this going for twenty years if they 656 00:32:55,880 --> 00:32:58,240 Speaker 2: need to, or if we're six months from some sort 657 00:32:58,240 --> 00:33:00,680 Speaker 2: of massive collapse. Like you'd have to at an economist 658 00:33:00,760 --> 00:33:03,640 Speaker 2: in here to comment on that. But I do know 659 00:33:03,680 --> 00:33:06,400 Speaker 2: it's very likely it will collapse at some point. It's 660 00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:10,160 Speaker 2: why at Hermit we don't do AI consulting. We could 661 00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:11,960 Speaker 2: get a lot of work doing it. I just don't 662 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:13,719 Speaker 2: think it's you know, we're thinking in a five to 663 00:33:13,720 --> 00:33:16,080 Speaker 2: ten year time span. I don't think it's sustainable to 664 00:33:16,080 --> 00:33:16,680 Speaker 2: be in that game. 665 00:33:17,160 --> 00:33:21,560 Speaker 1: It all feels very nihilistic. It all feels just likes 666 00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:25,520 Speaker 1: grifting each other at this point. Like Microsoft is now 667 00:33:25,560 --> 00:33:30,800 Speaker 1: the largest customer of Oracle because Oracle is now building 668 00:33:30,880 --> 00:33:36,000 Speaker 1: data centers for Microsoft to build AI. Yeah. My experience, 669 00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:38,520 Speaker 1: by which I mean reading a great deal of blogs 670 00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:43,080 Speaker 1: and earnings is it doesn't seem like anyone's making any 671 00:33:43,120 --> 00:33:46,520 Speaker 1: money from this, and that seems to be your experience too, right. 672 00:33:47,320 --> 00:33:52,320 Speaker 2: I haven't seen any medium sized company that's stabbled in 673 00:33:52,400 --> 00:33:57,480 Speaker 2: AI make any money off of it. Most of our 674 00:33:57,600 --> 00:34:00,640 Speaker 2: clients fortunately aren't too deep into it, but they bring 675 00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:02,640 Speaker 2: us on and ask things like, hey, you know, we 676 00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:05,640 Speaker 2: just bought this Microsoft product. Can we get it to 677 00:34:05,680 --> 00:34:07,720 Speaker 2: do the thing it's supposed to do? And the answers 678 00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:11,680 Speaker 2: almost always know, like there's just no. We mostly help 679 00:34:11,719 --> 00:34:13,799 Speaker 2: people get out of the AI game, right. They bring 680 00:34:13,920 --> 00:34:16,440 Speaker 2: us in to help them finish the project, and we 681 00:34:16,520 --> 00:34:18,960 Speaker 2: mostly point out that they should just cancel the project, 682 00:34:19,160 --> 00:34:21,040 Speaker 2: and then we go do boring stuff like fix their 683 00:34:21,080 --> 00:34:23,359 Speaker 2: databases because that's what they should have done five years ago. 684 00:34:23,600 --> 00:34:25,360 Speaker 1: And that's kind of what you've been suggesting in the 685 00:34:25,360 --> 00:34:30,200 Speaker 1: piece as well, that the real problem is organizational failure 686 00:34:30,320 --> 00:34:35,279 Speaker 1: almost like like I mentioned earlier though unchecked backups. Yeah, yeah, 687 00:34:35,280 --> 00:34:37,400 Speaker 1: what are other things that people are just not doing? 688 00:34:37,480 --> 00:34:39,480 Speaker 1: Like what is the actual thing being ignored? 689 00:34:39,920 --> 00:34:42,759 Speaker 2: Well, the thing is, it's like a constellation of things, right. 690 00:34:42,880 --> 00:34:44,920 Speaker 2: It would be like asking a writer what is the 691 00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:48,520 Speaker 2: one thing that writer's ignoring. It's about like developing your 692 00:34:48,600 --> 00:34:52,480 Speaker 2: judgment across like the entire field holistically, but that's really 693 00:34:52,520 --> 00:34:56,080 Speaker 2: hard and takes a lifetime. So people just fixate on 694 00:34:56,080 --> 00:34:57,759 Speaker 2: the latest thing and they build their whole career off 695 00:34:57,760 --> 00:35:00,200 Speaker 2: of that. It takes like thirty seconds of skin being 696 00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:02,520 Speaker 2: someone's cv to tell when they're full of shit, Like 697 00:35:02,560 --> 00:35:04,400 Speaker 2: it's really really obvious, who's serious? 698 00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:05,160 Speaker 1: And how do you do it? 699 00:35:05,239 --> 00:35:09,000 Speaker 2: Tell me again? Even that's a judgment piece, right, But 700 00:35:09,160 --> 00:35:11,920 Speaker 2: you know, here's a good example. Most organizations I know 701 00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:14,799 Speaker 2: are really into I don't know if this resonates for 702 00:35:14,840 --> 00:35:18,560 Speaker 2: non technical people, but there's this thing agile. Everyone's just 703 00:35:18,600 --> 00:35:20,759 Speaker 2: obsessed with being maximally agile all the time. 704 00:35:20,880 --> 00:35:23,120 Speaker 1: Please please define that. I know what it is, but 705 00:35:23,600 --> 00:35:25,120 Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to hearing. 706 00:35:25,440 --> 00:35:28,200 Speaker 2: It's it's meant to be a set of like it's 707 00:35:28,239 --> 00:35:31,839 Speaker 2: literally like a four or five sentence thing which says 708 00:35:31,880 --> 00:35:36,680 Speaker 2: you value things like people over processes. Right, it's it's 709 00:35:36,719 --> 00:35:41,160 Speaker 2: literally five pages. And we've built this entire manic industry 710 00:35:41,840 --> 00:35:45,000 Speaker 2: of like books and specialists and this all built around 711 00:35:45,040 --> 00:35:47,799 Speaker 2: these five sentences which just say things like, you know, 712 00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:50,759 Speaker 2: let people work and pay attention to the human And 713 00:35:50,800 --> 00:35:52,879 Speaker 2: when you talk to these consultants, you find out they 714 00:35:52,880 --> 00:35:55,760 Speaker 2: haven't even read those original five sentences. 715 00:35:55,840 --> 00:35:58,800 Speaker 3: Right, that's very very common. I hope it's five sentences. 716 00:35:58,800 --> 00:36:01,280 Speaker 5: It might be that it's again, it's like that copy 717 00:36:01,320 --> 00:36:04,440 Speaker 5: of a copy right at this point, like the we've 718 00:36:04,480 --> 00:36:07,040 Speaker 5: gone to Kinko so many times you can't even really 719 00:36:07,040 --> 00:36:09,440 Speaker 5: tell what's supposed to be written on the sheet. But 720 00:36:09,480 --> 00:36:12,560 Speaker 5: they all know it's deeply important to run a good. 721 00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:15,880 Speaker 2: Business like Camino. But all the clones have eight heads, 722 00:36:15,960 --> 00:36:16,879 Speaker 2: you know, like they'd be right. 723 00:36:18,480 --> 00:36:23,040 Speaker 5: They no longer look like that very handsome stunt man. 724 00:36:23,239 --> 00:36:25,120 Speaker 4: Yeah, it almost. 725 00:36:24,840 --> 00:36:27,560 Speaker 1: Feels like the whole DevOps thing that happened. Remember the 726 00:36:27,600 --> 00:36:30,120 Speaker 1: DevOps boom where I was like, yeah, DevOps is important, 727 00:36:30,160 --> 00:36:32,239 Speaker 1: and then when I had clients, I was like, what's 728 00:36:32,239 --> 00:36:34,640 Speaker 1: stevops meaning? To be like wor It's like the developers 729 00:36:34,719 --> 00:36:36,400 Speaker 1: talk to the business people like why do you need 730 00:36:36,520 --> 00:36:39,800 Speaker 1: software for that? And they would kind of freeze. 731 00:36:39,840 --> 00:36:43,399 Speaker 2: That's that's not over. It's just that it's been overshadowed 732 00:36:43,440 --> 00:36:45,759 Speaker 2: by the AI thing. But so you're agile. We have 733 00:36:45,840 --> 00:36:47,759 Speaker 2: this whole industry of people who turn up and tell 734 00:36:47,760 --> 00:36:50,120 Speaker 2: you how to run meetings every day, and it's like, 735 00:36:50,200 --> 00:36:51,839 Speaker 2: to talk to people, what the hell are you talking 736 00:36:51,840 --> 00:36:56,160 Speaker 2: about DevOps? People still say that constantly, and it's really 737 00:36:56,360 --> 00:37:00,399 Speaker 2: just code for like automate your things sensibly, right, there's 738 00:37:00,440 --> 00:37:03,320 Speaker 2: something useful in there, and the moment someone realized it 739 00:37:03,440 --> 00:37:06,120 Speaker 2: was useful. We just got another gigantic industry around it. 740 00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:08,640 Speaker 2: That's where most that's what most of my blog is 741 00:37:08,680 --> 00:37:11,040 Speaker 2: actually about. The aipiece was just like I've never even 742 00:37:11,040 --> 00:37:14,040 Speaker 2: written about it before because it was so obviously kind 743 00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:16,520 Speaker 2: of bullshit. It didn't warrant it until someone really annoyed 744 00:37:16,560 --> 00:37:17,239 Speaker 2: me last week. 745 00:37:17,760 --> 00:37:19,920 Speaker 1: Yeah, what actually caused you to write that? Was there 746 00:37:20,040 --> 00:37:20,560 Speaker 1: just a guy? 747 00:37:22,560 --> 00:37:24,440 Speaker 2: I think, I, you know, it's been building up for 748 00:37:24,600 --> 00:37:27,399 Speaker 2: like four years. And then finally I think I put 749 00:37:27,400 --> 00:37:30,520 Speaker 2: a picture in there of that scale AI survey. Yes, 750 00:37:30,600 --> 00:37:33,120 Speaker 2: and I just saw that line that was like, was 751 00:37:33,160 --> 00:37:35,799 Speaker 2: it eight percent of companies have not seen gains from 752 00:37:35,960 --> 00:37:36,399 Speaker 2: gen AI? 753 00:37:37,760 --> 00:37:38,840 Speaker 3: And then I chose violence. 754 00:37:39,000 --> 00:37:43,000 Speaker 1: You know, this is done some really inventive threats as well. 755 00:37:44,480 --> 00:37:46,840 Speaker 1: I was very happy to see you say it was 756 00:37:47,920 --> 00:37:50,040 Speaker 1: you need to you need to replace your sweaters with 757 00:37:50,160 --> 00:37:52,040 Speaker 1: full plate to survive my onslaught. 758 00:37:54,280 --> 00:37:55,840 Speaker 4: I I appreciate that. 759 00:37:55,960 --> 00:37:57,719 Speaker 5: I can't think one of the problems we're having, and 760 00:37:57,800 --> 00:37:59,759 Speaker 5: this isn't just a problem in the tech space, but 761 00:38:00,280 --> 00:38:02,880 Speaker 5: you've got a bunch of people who get by on 762 00:38:03,080 --> 00:38:05,840 Speaker 5: not being challenged, or the fact that if you are 763 00:38:05,880 --> 00:38:08,400 Speaker 5: going to have a debate with someone, the act of 764 00:38:08,600 --> 00:38:11,040 Speaker 5: like arguing with them about something lends some sort of 765 00:38:11,080 --> 00:38:13,400 Speaker 5: credibility to their position. When there are certain people that 766 00:38:13,480 --> 00:38:17,160 Speaker 5: what they're saying is just such horseshit, potentially dangerous horseshit 767 00:38:17,480 --> 00:38:19,120 Speaker 5: that what you need to say is if you say 768 00:38:19,200 --> 00:38:22,680 Speaker 5: that again, I'm going to pile driver you right like, 769 00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:25,400 Speaker 5: I'm gonna give you a fucking stone cold stunner if 770 00:38:25,440 --> 00:38:26,840 Speaker 5: you keep doing that shit. 771 00:38:28,560 --> 00:38:30,440 Speaker 4: And I do appreciate that tone. 772 00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:34,120 Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know it's we talked about that bulldozing. 773 00:38:34,160 --> 00:38:36,800 Speaker 2: A lot of it is just the fact that you 774 00:38:36,880 --> 00:38:40,680 Speaker 2: know they're basically just committing a low level psychological violence 775 00:38:40,719 --> 00:38:41,680 Speaker 2: on a societal level. 776 00:38:42,080 --> 00:38:42,200 Speaker 3: Right. 777 00:38:42,239 --> 00:38:44,920 Speaker 2: They may get you into an office and then they 778 00:38:44,960 --> 00:38:47,800 Speaker 2: will talk at you for like a hundred hours, like 779 00:38:47,880 --> 00:38:49,719 Speaker 2: they will not drop the point. They will just talk 780 00:38:49,760 --> 00:38:52,440 Speaker 2: about AI twenty four to seven. And if you're a 781 00:38:52,440 --> 00:38:54,800 Speaker 2: little bit pessimistic of question your credentials, say you're not 782 00:38:54,880 --> 00:38:57,600 Speaker 2: forward looking, blah blah blah blah blah, no idea, and 783 00:38:57,760 --> 00:39:00,839 Speaker 2: they'll just do this until you go, I just need 784 00:39:00,880 --> 00:39:03,239 Speaker 2: to paycheck, all right, invest in whatever you want. 785 00:39:03,280 --> 00:39:04,120 Speaker 3: I give up, just do it. 786 00:39:04,320 --> 00:39:06,400 Speaker 1: Just do it. And this is a common is this 787 00:39:06,600 --> 00:39:08,719 Speaker 1: like a what kind of person does this? 788 00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:09,160 Speaker 2: Is this? 789 00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:12,239 Speaker 1: Like I see is this an executive level person, the 790 00:39:12,320 --> 00:39:15,160 Speaker 1: product manager, what's the art or like a consultant. 791 00:39:15,640 --> 00:39:18,879 Speaker 2: I think it happens at like in every position. I've 792 00:39:18,920 --> 00:39:21,680 Speaker 2: seen programmers do that. I've seen artists do that. I've 793 00:39:21,719 --> 00:39:25,120 Speaker 2: seen executives do that. I have I can't respond to 794 00:39:25,160 --> 00:39:27,560 Speaker 2: my emails anymore because so many people have written in 795 00:39:27,680 --> 00:39:31,759 Speaker 2: with stories that I can't navigate that inbox, right, And Yeah, I. 796 00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:32,640 Speaker 3: Just see it everywhere I go. 797 00:39:32,840 --> 00:39:35,880 Speaker 2: And then occasionally I see like these really small functional 798 00:39:35,920 --> 00:39:39,240 Speaker 2: places where they don't have these issues stops usually anywhere 799 00:39:39,239 --> 00:39:43,160 Speaker 2: between like five to one hundred people, and it's really 800 00:39:43,200 --> 00:39:45,840 Speaker 2: hard to get in there because they don't scale up 801 00:39:46,160 --> 00:39:46,600 Speaker 2: because they. 802 00:39:46,600 --> 00:39:48,200 Speaker 1: Really don't help to hire more people. 803 00:39:48,600 --> 00:39:48,799 Speaker 3: Yeah. 804 00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:50,640 Speaker 2: Yeah, they get to one hundred and they're like, well, 805 00:39:50,640 --> 00:39:52,719 Speaker 2: we're all really well paid and happy, and the more 806 00:39:52,760 --> 00:39:54,600 Speaker 2: people we add, the higher the odds are we just 807 00:39:54,680 --> 00:39:56,120 Speaker 2: get someone like that. 808 00:39:56,800 --> 00:39:58,120 Speaker 3: So we're just going to stop hiring. 809 00:39:58,600 --> 00:40:01,440 Speaker 1: In my experience, people like that, And I'll run a 810 00:40:01,480 --> 00:40:03,160 Speaker 1: tech p off from my day job, and I do 811 00:40:03,280 --> 00:40:05,920 Speaker 1: occasionally run into people at this, and I've learned that 812 00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:08,040 Speaker 1: there's just a really easy way of saying it is 813 00:40:08,400 --> 00:40:12,080 Speaker 1: I'm not done talking, like they really hate that. When 814 00:40:12,120 --> 00:40:14,440 Speaker 1: I run into this kind of sociopathogic, you say I'm 815 00:40:14,480 --> 00:40:17,799 Speaker 1: not done talking, and they get really mad because they're like, wait, 816 00:40:18,480 --> 00:40:21,880 Speaker 1: I can't just attack. I've told peg to fuck off. 817 00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:22,399 Speaker 3: I don't care. 818 00:40:22,880 --> 00:40:24,960 Speaker 1: The thing is, these people, perhaps they only need to 819 00:40:24,960 --> 00:40:26,719 Speaker 1: be pile drive, but they need to be yelled at. 820 00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:31,840 Speaker 1: Samultman can't apparently walk around San Francisco anymore. And I 821 00:40:31,920 --> 00:40:34,160 Speaker 1: think he'd want you to believe it's because he's famous, 822 00:40:34,200 --> 00:40:36,200 Speaker 1: but I like to believe it's because people fucking scream 823 00:40:36,239 --> 00:40:38,280 Speaker 1: at him. I hope that that happens. 824 00:40:38,800 --> 00:40:39,480 Speaker 3: I'd probably do. 825 00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:44,000 Speaker 4: I'll tell you if I run into him today. 826 00:40:44,600 --> 00:40:46,080 Speaker 1: Yeah, please do give him my number. 827 00:40:46,760 --> 00:40:49,080 Speaker 2: I should probably clarify I don't know that much about 828 00:40:49,160 --> 00:40:51,640 Speaker 2: Sam Altman, so I don't want to. I'm gonna I'm 829 00:40:51,640 --> 00:40:53,080 Speaker 2: going to read about him, and then I'll kick you 830 00:40:53,160 --> 00:40:55,160 Speaker 2: an email to see if I feel better or not 831 00:40:55,280 --> 00:40:58,759 Speaker 2: about slamming. It's great, it's cool, dude, He's a real 832 00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:01,759 Speaker 2: he's a real charm. It's got your best interest at heart. 833 00:41:01,800 --> 00:41:02,640 Speaker 2: You should listen to them. 834 00:41:02,680 --> 00:41:06,279 Speaker 1: But always has so okay, I think good question to 835 00:41:06,360 --> 00:41:10,520 Speaker 1: wrap up on is assume you are God really easy 836 00:41:10,600 --> 00:41:13,880 Speaker 1: one here? Yeah, yeah, how would you actually fix the 837 00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:16,239 Speaker 1: current culture in tech? You've kind of hinted at it. 838 00:41:16,400 --> 00:41:20,000 Speaker 1: It's like organizational stuff. What would you see done with 839 00:41:20,200 --> 00:41:22,840 Speaker 1: like a Google or a fake like what the bigger companies? 840 00:41:23,080 --> 00:41:24,120 Speaker 1: What is the problem then? 841 00:41:24,680 --> 00:41:29,120 Speaker 2: Yeah, So I think it's some inherent issue to do 842 00:41:29,239 --> 00:41:32,600 Speaker 2: with scale, because fundamentally we're talking about the fact that 843 00:41:32,680 --> 00:41:35,719 Speaker 2: there's a class of person who will either believe people 844 00:41:35,760 --> 00:41:39,040 Speaker 2: in day to day interactions or they find ways to 845 00:41:39,239 --> 00:41:42,000 Speaker 2: attach themselves to people who are very very credulous or 846 00:41:42,080 --> 00:41:43,920 Speaker 2: don't have the technical skill to push back on what 847 00:41:43,960 --> 00:41:46,840 Speaker 2: they're saying. I suspect that's a lot of why journalists 848 00:41:46,880 --> 00:41:50,000 Speaker 2: don't push back on, you know, people saying insane things, 849 00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:52,840 Speaker 2: because there's of course a fear in the back of 850 00:41:52,920 --> 00:41:54,719 Speaker 2: your mind that they're going to come out with like, yeah, 851 00:41:54,719 --> 00:41:56,600 Speaker 2: but you're not a technician. That was a stupid question. 852 00:41:56,920 --> 00:41:58,840 Speaker 2: You've just been embarrassed on your own show, right, Like, 853 00:41:58,920 --> 00:42:02,040 Speaker 2: that's that's very, very possible. I think a lot of 854 00:42:02,080 --> 00:42:05,160 Speaker 2: those issues are so systemic that I view it from 855 00:42:05,280 --> 00:42:09,000 Speaker 2: like a small scale disruption standpoint. So I started Hermetech 856 00:42:09,160 --> 00:42:11,360 Speaker 2: with just a couple of my friends. Right, They're just 857 00:42:11,560 --> 00:42:14,040 Speaker 2: guys I met who behave very honestly in the space. 858 00:42:14,440 --> 00:42:16,120 Speaker 2: Some of them are AI guys, but they just do 859 00:42:16,640 --> 00:42:21,040 Speaker 2: like actual serious work that gets published in places. Yeah, 860 00:42:21,160 --> 00:42:25,160 Speaker 2: and we're just taking all the business from places that 861 00:42:25,320 --> 00:42:28,520 Speaker 2: actually need results. Right, So most of the people rolling 862 00:42:28,520 --> 00:42:31,000 Speaker 2: out Opening Eye stuff are not interested in working with 863 00:42:31,120 --> 00:42:35,000 Speaker 2: us because they're just doing some weird Ponzi scheme where 864 00:42:35,040 --> 00:42:38,359 Speaker 2: they convert the investor money into status and they use 865 00:42:38,360 --> 00:42:38,880 Speaker 2: the status to. 866 00:42:38,880 --> 00:42:39,799 Speaker 3: Get a higher paying job. 867 00:42:39,920 --> 00:42:42,240 Speaker 2: Like, they don't need us because they don't actually need results, 868 00:42:42,360 --> 00:42:45,680 Speaker 2: They just need to grift. I'm just going to let 869 00:42:45,719 --> 00:42:47,800 Speaker 2: that market explode. That's not my problem. I think it 870 00:42:47,840 --> 00:42:50,640 Speaker 2: would be dangerous to do anything to it. It's just 871 00:42:50,680 --> 00:42:53,120 Speaker 2: going to blow up on its own. I'm just going 872 00:42:53,160 --> 00:42:55,000 Speaker 2: to hang out in the corner with some sane people 873 00:42:55,719 --> 00:42:57,960 Speaker 2: and just find people who actually need stuff to work. 874 00:42:58,040 --> 00:42:58,160 Speaker 7: Right. 875 00:42:58,360 --> 00:43:00,520 Speaker 2: I'm going to go in and just make sure all 876 00:43:00,560 --> 00:43:03,800 Speaker 2: the database backups get tested, and then I feel like 877 00:43:03,880 --> 00:43:06,320 Speaker 2: that's going to be a bajillion dollar industry. 878 00:43:06,480 --> 00:43:10,360 Speaker 3: Right, Like for the rest makes things work, Yeah, just 879 00:43:10,440 --> 00:43:11,040 Speaker 3: make things work. 880 00:43:11,080 --> 00:43:13,720 Speaker 2: That's how people have made money for like the history 881 00:43:13,760 --> 00:43:16,080 Speaker 2: of time. Just don't be insane about it. 882 00:43:16,960 --> 00:43:19,719 Speaker 1: Nick, thank you so much for joining us. Where can 883 00:43:19,760 --> 00:43:20,400 Speaker 1: people find you? 884 00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:21,200 Speaker 4: Yeah? 885 00:43:21,280 --> 00:43:21,520 Speaker 3: Thank you? 886 00:43:21,960 --> 00:43:24,319 Speaker 2: Yep, so I bought a lunic dot blog so they 887 00:43:24,360 --> 00:43:28,600 Speaker 2: can find my personal website, and there is hermitdash tech 888 00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:31,160 Speaker 2: dot com and that's where they can get us for consulting. 889 00:43:31,840 --> 00:43:33,359 Speaker 3: If you need someone to not lie to you, that's 890 00:43:33,719 --> 00:43:34,160 Speaker 3: that's us. 891 00:43:35,239 --> 00:43:37,040 Speaker 1: And of course I would never like to you. My 892 00:43:37,200 --> 00:43:39,600 Speaker 1: name's Ed Zititron. I run this podcast. You I need 893 00:43:39,640 --> 00:43:41,839 Speaker 1: to hear from me. But of course Robert Evans joined 894 00:43:41,920 --> 00:43:43,440 Speaker 1: us today as well. Where can they find you? 895 00:43:43,560 --> 00:43:43,799 Speaker 3: Robert? 896 00:43:44,000 --> 00:43:45,279 Speaker 4: Thank you? Thank you. 897 00:43:45,600 --> 00:43:45,640 Speaker 1: Ed. 898 00:43:46,040 --> 00:43:48,760 Speaker 5: You can find me occasionally on your show Better Offline 899 00:43:49,160 --> 00:43:51,400 Speaker 5: and on my own show Behind the Bastards. 900 00:43:52,200 --> 00:44:03,600 Speaker 1: So yeah, thank you for listening to Better Offline. The 901 00:44:03,800 --> 00:44:06,960 Speaker 1: editor and composer of the Better Offline theme song is Matasowski. 902 00:44:07,320 --> 00:44:09,120 Speaker 1: You can check out more of his music and audio 903 00:44:09,160 --> 00:44:12,000 Speaker 1: projects at Matasowski dot com, M A. 904 00:44:12,160 --> 00:44:16,040 Speaker 4: T T O S O W s ki dot com. 905 00:44:16,760 --> 00:44:19,279 Speaker 1: You can email me at easy at Better Offline dot com, 906 00:44:19,480 --> 00:44:21,760 Speaker 1: or visit Better Offline dot com to find more podcast 907 00:44:21,840 --> 00:44:25,160 Speaker 1: links and of course my newsletter. I also really recommend 908 00:44:25,200 --> 00:44:27,120 Speaker 1: you go to chat dot where's youreaed dot at to 909 00:44:27,239 --> 00:44:28,520 Speaker 1: visit the discord and go. 910 00:44:28,600 --> 00:44:31,120 Speaker 7: To our slash Better Offline to check out our reddit. 911 00:44:31,920 --> 00:44:35,160 Speaker 7: Thank you so much for listening. Better Offline is a 912 00:44:35,200 --> 00:44:38,040 Speaker 7: production of cool Zone Media. For more from cool Zone Media, 913 00:44:38,400 --> 00:44:41,520 Speaker 7: visit our website cool Zonemedia dot com, or check us 914 00:44:41,560 --> 00:44:44,520 Speaker 7: out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 915 00:44:44,600 --> 00:44:45,440 Speaker 7: get your podcasts. 916 00:45:00,080 --> 00:45:02,640 Speaker 4: The Welsh Spanish School