This is Hooovahh

[JW-JnJ]

---

@Hooovahh wrote:

Not me but a friend:

AI

We're in a meeting and the C level executive just advised us to call everything AI.  Even if it's a stretch they said just do it.   "There's no rules on what is AI, there is no committee that decides what is AI and what is not.  Our competitors are doing it too.  So just call everything AI".

---

We have constant pressure to incorporate AI into everything here as well.

Humorously, most of the legitimate use for AI around here has been

• Filling out my midyear and end-of-year self reviews (which get ignored)
• Writing meaningless compliance documentation where the auditor is more interested in a document existing than the thing being done properly
• Making parody songs or humorous poems to send to coworkers instead of me tediously trying to think of words that rhyme

Overall it HAS saved me a bit of time, but not for the reasons management expected.

Management always seem to think it can replace the highly technical/difficult documentation with multiple linkages to other specific documents in our change-management-system. My objection always falls of deaf ears. I actually don't complain about documentation anymore because I know the next question will be "Did you try AI?"

I also have a co-worker who I'm 90% sure "helps" me with AI answers because most of the API functions he mentions don't exist. I guess AI taught me not to ask him questions.

[JÞB]

---

@Jacobson wrote:

---

@Hooovahh wrote:

"There's no rules on what is AI, there is no committee that decides what is AI and what is not.  Our competitors are doing it too.  So just call everything AI".

---

I mean, they're not totally wrong. Don't hate the player, hate the game.

I should buy a magic 8 ball and call it my AI assistant.

---

It's all in the calibration! 😄 😀 (available for remote consultation at a reasonable value for cost)  

[crossrulz]

---

@JW-JnJ wrote:

Humorously, most of the legitimate use for AI around here has been

• Writing meaningless compliance documentation where the auditor is more interested in a document existing than the thing being done properly

---

You also need a large "thud factor" to really make them happy.

For those who are not in the know, the "thud factor" basically says that the larger the document, the louder the thud when you toss it on a desk.  High thud factor documents rarely get read but are easily approved.

[daphilli]

My strategy at the last employer for dealing with the problem of 

"I can either get work done, or I can give you an update about the work not getting done."

was to try to preempt the report requests by completing task milestones ahead of the requests. Its a strategy that required a bit of anticipative forecasting and a lot of early work on my side.

As the company incrementally tightened resources and lost focus on pet diversions, this devolved into improvisational design during fabrication with no prior planning, but it was mostly successful. What made it possible was the network of industrial junk stores that used to exist in Silicon Valley. Fortunately, I was offered early retirement ahead of "Bidenomics" as closure of the junk stores made the strategy impossible. 

[JÞB]

---

@daphilli wrote:

My strategy at the last employer for dealing with the problem of 

"I can either get work done, or I can give you an update about the work not getting done."

was to try to preempt the report requests by completing task milestones....Its a strategy that required ... a lot of... work on my side.

---

Yes! That was usually my approach too!  Simply GETTING THE WORK DONE! avoids many of those annoying meetings. 

Granted, that involved constant effort to become proficient and improve my skills continously!  Still, I found it more rewarding than making smart-ass comments directed at the hiring manager. 

[JÞB]

---

@crossrulz wrote:

---

@Hooovahh wrote:

At work we had several mandatory training sessions on corporate things that don't really matter. Every couple of months 200 or so employees would get together in a huge room and have to sit through the most dry and boring topics that would only affect maybe 5 people in the room.

---

Corporate training is almost always pointless.  They are nothing more the CYAs for the company.  The funny thing is they were commonly the same between companies.  I had to do the annual ethics training (online) right before I left a company and the first week at the new company was supposed to be going through the exact same training.  I may have figured out a few tricks to make things go quicker (use script mode instead of video and just quickly click through the slides, answer the questions that were exactly the same, and be done within 1/4 the time).  I was done with all of the "ethics training" within a day instead of a week.

---

@Hooovahh wrote:

So to spice things up, and keep our attention, the presenter would break up the content with Trunk Monkey videos.

---

I had completely forgotten about Trunk Money.  I had a coworker who showed me a few of them when they were new.

---

Cheating on the ethics training.  Classy!

I wound up watching an active shooter training video just before the manager needed an escort with a cash deposit.   

ME: Cool, I even just finished the required Active Shooter training!

MGR: awesome,  thanks for getting that done.

ME: Yep, all trained up on what to do if we see a shooter...you're on your own!

MGR: You are hilarious 🤣

[wiebe@CARYA]

---

@JÞB wrote:

Cheating on the ethics training.  Classy!

---

Ethical hacker 😎

[crossrulz]

---

wiebe@CARYA wrote:

---

@JÞB wrote:

Cheating on the ethics training.  Classy!

---

Ethical hacker 😎

---

If we want to talk ethics, I was saving the company money while still providing their CYA.  Where did I go wrong?

[JÞB]

---

@crossrulz wrote:

---

wiebe@CARYA wrote:

---

@JÞB wrote:

Cheating on the ethics training.  Classy!

---

Ethical hacker 😎

---

If we want to talk ethics, I was saving the company money while still providing their CYA.  Where did I go wrong?

---

You forgot to be enrolled at Annapolis or West Point at the time.  (Both have historical scandals of large scale ethics exam cheating) but, I should have known the cheat would admit a personal lapse.

[Hooovahh]

Drinking the rainbow

It was my second time attending NI Week and I had gotten into a closed door session about what would become the next new thing in LabVIEW.  It was all day Thursday with meetings with R&D talking about all kinds of future possibilities.  I was excited.  I found my people and was giddy and I didn’t want the fun to end.  At the end of the day some from NI were walking around asking about who would be staying the night and who would like to go to an after party.  This was an opportunity to have personal conversations with NI about stuff and I was interested.  So I showed up to this somewhat fancy restaurant which was closed just for this event.  There were probably about 15 people from NI, and about 15 non-NI people.  I was the youngest in the group.  There was good food, an open bar, and great conversations.  

The waiter came around asking what people would like to drink.  I’m not a beer guy and it was an open bar so I could get anything I wanted.  Earlier that day I had been talking to Becky Linton about drinks and she said one thing she does when she can’t figure out what to drink is she will ask for something blue since they are usually sugary and easy to drink.  So I told the waiter at this somewhat fancy place “I would like something blue”.  He looked a bit confused and said “blue?”, I said “yes, blue, the color”.  So the waiter took the rest of the orders and left.  A few minutes later the bartender came over and asked what I ordered and I had to reiterate, “something the color blue” and he left somewhat enthusiastically.  When the order arrived it was blue, and all 30 people at the place were interested in the weird drink I ordered.  It was strong but good.  So I finished it and the waiter asked if I’d like another blue drink and I said “No I want a drink that is green”.  A little later the bartender came over with a green drink and was enjoying getting to mix things up and see what he could make.  After that I ordered a red drink, and then a purple drink.  It wasn’t until later in the night that I realized drinking 4 really strong drinks in a short amount of time might have been a bad idea.  

When I get drunk I get loud.  I started yelling comments and criticism about LabVIEW and NI quite loud.  And at some point I stopped yelling mid sentence and looked around.  What I saw was a room full of 30 people all eyes on me, hanging on to every drunken word I said.  It was at that moment I realized, I should not have the attention of all of these important people on me, while so drunk, and I tried calming down and sobering up.  

I’ve ordered drinks by color at a ton of bars over the years.  I call it drinking the rainbow.  Never have I made it that far into the rainbow as I did that night.