With current ai models laying off 50% of engineers seems plausible. Obviously there would be some problems at the start but I'm quite sure it'd work over time.
This is quite weird to say imo.
I worked for mid-big companies (1-3k+ engineers) where we would never have enough people to execute the projects we wanted and kept postponing stuff to the next cycle. And this was 2024 to mid 2025
I believed that the moment when "coding was solved" we would see a massive improvement of productivity and these already postponed projects that we always wanted to start would be indeed carried out.
However, looks like companies don't strive to do More with AI, if that was the case we would not need lay offs. Big companies want to do the bare minimum to keep them alive. They want to do the same, while doing more per person, i.e. reducing employee costs.
I mean, I don't think unionizing will make such a difference.
Maybe, going in the sense I mentioned above, the work will be more sprayed around in startups.
Since big companies just want to do what they've been doing but with less people, instead of doing more per person.
This surplus will work with startups and new businesses to disrupt the big ones
>Why don’t we pay people to dig ditches with spoons? It would produce jobs!
Be glib all you want, but research has shown that displaced workers do not have great outcomes [1].
It's all fun and games to dunk on a person online, but when an entire industry employing millions of people starts to dissolve do to rapid automation, people will have wished there were more calls for organization, social safety nets, etc.
Surprised moving engineers to data labelling didn't cause an immediate riot.
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Previously on source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49446722
With current ai models laying off 50% of engineers seems plausible. Obviously there would be some problems at the start but I'm quite sure it'd work over time.
This is quite weird to say imo. I worked for mid-big companies (1-3k+ engineers) where we would never have enough people to execute the projects we wanted and kept postponing stuff to the next cycle. And this was 2024 to mid 2025 I believed that the moment when "coding was solved" we would see a massive improvement of productivity and these already postponed projects that we always wanted to start would be indeed carried out. However, looks like companies don't strive to do More with AI, if that was the case we would not need lay offs. Big companies want to do the bare minimum to keep them alive. They want to do the same, while doing more per person, i.e. reducing employee costs.
Maybe the silicon valley tech libertarians will realize the necessity of unions when they start cutting engineering teams in half.
I mean, I don't think unionizing will make such a difference. Maybe, going in the sense I mentioned above, the work will be more sprayed around in startups. Since big companies just want to do what they've been doing but with less people, instead of doing more per person. This surplus will work with startups and new businesses to disrupt the big ones
Unions wouldn't help with the layoffs if the engineers are no longer needed.
>Unions wouldn't help with the layoffs if the engineers are no longer needed
If tech was unionized like Hollywood is, tech unions could have stopped all of this from happening in the first place.
This has not worked out that well for Hollywood; lots of film and show production has moved out of the state and out of the country.
The unions are desperately lobbying for studio tax breaks to save the CA movie industry. The industry has shed a third of its jobs since 2022.
A union might delay the inevitable but the level of blind faith that many people put in them is crazy.
Why don’t we pay people to dig ditches with spoons? It would produce jobs!
>Why don’t we pay people to dig ditches with spoons? It would produce jobs!
Be glib all you want, but research has shown that displaced workers do not have great outcomes [1].
It's all fun and games to dunk on a person online, but when an entire industry employing millions of people starts to dissolve do to rapid automation, people will have wished there were more calls for organization, social safety nets, etc.
[1] https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v83y1993i4p685-709.html...