4,185 karma · joined October 8, 2007
While I cannot relate to the idea of choosing to have a relationship with a robot, I can see why a lot of people would choose to opt out of the social sphere. All the abuse it hurls at them, why bother?
It's not going to seem strange to them at all.
I just don't see any evidence that social graphs are becoming more relevant or even that they exist for many people onboarding on to the internet/apps for the first time. You can use Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and even Facebook now without creating any social graph at all. In fact, it seems like they prefer it that way.
It all feels like the groundwork for "AI lovers" anyway. Our desire to reshape the world in our own view and to our own desires is how this feedback loop is going to be used. We do it now in social groups that are self-reinforcing, like churches, cults, interest related groups, workplaces (one team!) etc, but I think those will all become superfluous to our desire to just feel seen, heard and entertained. In a group you have to compete to have those needs met, in the future it might be easier to just get it from a robot that understands us far better, gives us undivided attention, and only responds in ways that elicit the feelings and experiences we want.
There is also another aspect to consider. The swift expansion of generative AI is driving the transition from a Social Graph to a Content Graph. Online users are now more interested in engaging, up-to-date content rather than keeping up with their friends' activities. Platforms like TikTok and YouTube pioneered this trend, while Twitter's timeline modifications serve as a functional yet imperfect example. Content discovery now takes precedence over static friend lists.
The core principle that Facebook was built on is gradually crumbling. This isn't just about Apple's privacy policies or regulatory constraints; it's a fundamental shift in user behavior. The primary reason people visit Facebook—connecting with people they know—is now at odds with their main online activity: consuming content from strangers. Facebook has become a platform for discovering uncomfortable opinions of acquaintances and realizing the irrelevance of past social connections.
Facebook is attempting to adapt, but their efforts only diminish the platform's value for average users. Instagram's discovery page and Reels are examples, but the latter pales in comparison to TikTok. Facebook's endeavors in short-form video are likely a futile game of catch-up, a classic innovator's dilemma.
The Metaverse's introduction seemed like a desperate, last-minute attempt from the C-suite to save face. Anyone who has worked at a high-profile tech company has likely seen this tactic before: weak financial quarters lead to premature product announcements. The all-encompassing nature of the Metaverse announcement signals that something is amiss. It's only more futile now.
1: https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2023/03/28/the-trouble-with...
In the future all of these messages may very well be generated based on rules and training provided by the organization itself.
Hand crafting communication will fall in to the "why bother?" bucket of work.
The only difference will be that nobody will ever put a message in the footer to declare it was generated by AI. The cultural Rubicon has probably been crossed already, or will be soon.
>You could argue that if you're in that situation you should be relying on existing networks to propel you into your next thing
That was very much the case for me. My network is the most valuable thing I posses in many ways, but it is 20 years old and it does stagnate a bit. I used YC founder match to find new connections with (younger) ambitious people who had a strong success drive. More established people tend to have far less bias to commit and act.
If you are interested in offering plans for any segment or channel, as well as custom pricing configurations for larger accounts, then I think could be useful for you. My email is Jevon at tier.run if you'd like to connect.
I made a list of "things that need a high quality open source version" and this was at the top of the list. I've looked and looked at some of the more established options, but they seem like too much software for what I want.
I'm looking forward to trying it out when we launch our cloud version soon.
We're also working in the billing space with a complementary tool, Tier (https://github.com/tierrun/tier). Although we currently do not support Lago directly, it's exciting to see more options emerging. Their content marketing has been particularly impressive on HN and in general.
With metering, entitlement management, CPQ, feature gating, and everything else required in a modern SaaS company, the PriceOps space can be quite complex for developers.
Congratulations on the launch and best of luck!
We recently open sourced Tier http://github.com/tierrun/tier which combines metering, entitlements, feature flags and a client side SDK to simplify things.
I don't see why you want to avoid grandparenting. If the pricing model [2] is versioned and immutable, then keeping customers on their existing Customer Schedule [3] and then using specific migrations to move customers to new schedules makes sense and is easier than either not doing anything, or trying to track customer specific discounts and the accounting related to that.
Prompt: Read the following diary entry from a worker. Write an email he could send to his manager outlining his concerns. The goal of the email is to create a productive path forward for the employee to continue in their job while feeling like they are appropriately compensated and fully engaged.
Results:
Subject: Request for a meeting to discuss my concerns about my current situation
Dear [Manager's Name],
I hope this email finds you well. I would like to request a meeting with you to discuss my current situation and concerns at the company.
As you are aware, I have been with the company for the past three years and have consistently given my best effort in my work. In our performance review meeting last year, I was told that I am the best engineer in the organization. Despite this recognition, I have not received any raises or promotions in the past three years and my salary has remained the same since my joining in 2019.
Recently, there was an addition of another engineer to our team, who was brought on during the mass layoffs. I understand that this person has a prior relationship with you, which may be that of a friend. Despite there being no requirement for another engineer, I took it upon myself to train this person to bring them up to speed. However, since this person has learned all that I know, I have noticed a change in the behavior of my manager towards me and a lack of communication in our 1:1 meetings. Additionally, this person who I trained has now been assigned a lead role and is giving me directions. This whole situation has become toxic for me and is affecting my work satisfaction.
I believe that it is important for me to feel appropriately compensated and engaged in my work. I would appreciate the opportunity to discuss this matter with you and find a productive path forward.
Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing back from you.
Best regards, [Your Name]
Unless the information is important (health) or being used analytically (improving participation, etc) then there is no reason for it.
What I do know is that they have a lot of things working against them: - Money is not cheap anymoore - Their market is collapsing.
I don't see how a company makes it through. Even if they navigate the present environment and manage to finance the company through the new few years, they may do so in to an ultimately collapsing market.
There is no reason to assume that crypto trading will exist in any meaningful way in the next few years. (It may, sure. You may believe, yes. Are there any clear indicators that it will stabilize and grow? No there are not.)
When someone is enjoying their career path and responsibility growth, it is an amazing experience for everyone.
When someone isn't enjoying it, it is MISERABLE for everyone. The problem is that in most cases the person in question asked for this career path. It's not their fault, they didn't know they wouldn't enjoy it. A combination of humility, denial and desire (for compensation growth) propels them to keep trying though. Because they are good developers and usually good people, it's hard to tell them they are performing poorly.
The best thing you can do for you, your manager and the company is to have a clear and concise conversation about it: I WAS excited about this path, but it's not working as well as I hoped. I still love being here, is there another path I can take?
A nice way to continue to contribute at a leadership level would be to mentor newer developers, work on some cross functional teams as an advisor, create programs that help others in the company develop skills (run the weekly demo event, create a lunch and learn for developers, etc). There are a lot of things you can do to support the growth of the company overall while keeping the scope of your actual responsibilities more well defined and focused on what you enjoy the most.
Fryers have oil, right? Oh, this one doesn't. Air??? Air Fryer??
Not an oven. Not a fryer?
I don't own a fryer anyway, they are gross with all that oil.
This fryer uses no oil?????!!!!
My oven doesn't use oil either. But it's not a fryer!
And then it gets bought.
The issue would be catching things early and managing them cost effectively before they blow up in the public sphere.
It didn't garner nearly the level of interest I thought it should/would. That was over 10 years ago though and the overall integration story probably sounded scarier than it needed to. The pitch was: Deal with big customers with big problems early (and possibly with specialized teams) so that escalations don't dramatically increase costs (they do, and the cost is usually unaccounted for).