foldlJun 10, 2024
Charlie Stross
Business meetings exist to share information and coordinate activity: this shit enables you to be apparently present in all but actually not engaged with any. If your calendar is triple-booked then your organization is under-resourced and needs more people, not more AI. Or it's holding unnecessary meetings to make management feel better about being surrounded by minions, in which case it needs to fire the executives responsible.
https://mastodon.social/@kjhealy/112553850995965423
Jun 4, 2024 at 9:11amWeb
Show threadMattJohnsJun 4, 2024
@cstross “I didn’t engage at a meeting I was needed at and the lack of engagement proves I was right” is a dangerous path to go down
Show threadJoão Tiago Rebelo (NAFO J-121)Jun 4, 2024
@cstross "this meeting could have been an e-mail written by Copilot" was right there, but they preferred to cater to the MBA tech AI bro logic so it could look like you are working while sending AI to "summarise" what the meeting was about.
Show threadUkeleleEricJun 4, 2024
@cstross I agree. It is a common fallacy that humans can effectively multi-task. It was also interesting that, a study on this a few years back, found that the worst people at multi-tasking were those who did it most often and thought they were good at it. This attitude also leaks into our private lives, to the detriment of our families and friends, and even strangers (eg. when we're driving down the road).
Show threadChristof Damian 💙💛Jun 4, 2024
@cstross I am fine with this, if we reach a point where only AIs are going to meetings.
Show threadJames HenstridgeJun 4, 2024
@cstross If everyone sends their AI double to the meeting, they could increase the apparent rate that time advances in the meeting. It'd then be possible to run the three meetings without any overlap.
Show threadMacBalanceJun 4, 2024
@cstross @kjhealy This is certainly a ridiculous feature to brag about. I do find there’s certain meetings in a lot of companies where being present is the main goal unfortunately.
Show threadCharlie StrossJun 4, 2024
@MacBalance @kjhealy Corporate bullshit and presenteeism has gotten surreal this decade. Evidence for the prosecution; that there exists a market for gizmos like this: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005530545625.html
Show threadGavin Volure’s Peanut ButterJun 4, 2024
@cstross @MacBalance @kjhealy Wow. Nightmare.
Show threadouinneJun 4, 2024
@iBlame @cstross @MacBalance @kjhealy just a note to anyone thinking of using one - people have been fired for using them, upping the dystopia factor.
Show threadGavin Volure’s Peanut ButterJun 4, 2024
@ouinne @cstross @MacBalance @kjhealy I immediately imagined corporate henchmen being sent around on dongle-checks
Show threadarialdoJun 4, 2024

@cstross

Agree!
But on "your organization is under-resourced" I can propose a different point of view:

"Your organization is over-resourced of managers who are not producing tangible results and who, in an effort to feel productive, involved with productive teams, and maintaining a sense of leadership, are left with one option only: to spend an inordinate amount of time in meetings and to pull technical staff away from their work to attend these meetings too.

Show threadGilberto FicaraJun 4, 2024
@cstross "this meeting could have been an email" vibes
Show threadClaudius LinkJun 4, 2024

@cstross
Or, it could be that you work ist 2/3 bullshit
😜
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs

In which case I'm all for letting an "AI" do it (apart for the resource usage and the fact that it would be even better to not do the work at all)

The problem then remains to decide which 2/3rds are it

Bullshit Jobs - Wikipedia

Show threadCharlie StrossJun 4, 2024
@realn2s I spend probably single-digit hours per YEAR in meetings these days, and I can't say I miss them.
Show threadPoligofskyJun 4, 2024
@cstross All status displays are arbitrary, weird, and a waste of resources. Proof of mating potential.
Show threadPetterOfCatsJun 4, 2024
@cstross This meeting could have been an email in my spam folder.
Show threadhwyadenJun 4, 2024

@cstross OMG if this is implemented right, this is so cool for my management team.

I am totally going with, "My grandma used to take over responsibility for these types of assignments for me when I was young, is there anyone willing to do this?"

Prompt engineering my ass, I've got 6 projects I will shove right at the first person who uses this.

Show threadferricoxideJun 4, 2024

@cstross

Or it's holding unnecessary meetings to make management feel better about being surrounded by minionsI'm thinking "this"

As to the "triple-booked": learn to say "no". When someone sends me an invite to a meeting where I already have something in my calendar and I know that the calendaring-system shows would-be-attendees' free/busy status, I'll write back, "as you may have noticed when scheduling this meeting, I'm currently booked at that time. If you absolutely need me in the meeting, you'll need to either reschedule your meeting or convince the owner of the meeting I'm currently confirmed to to reschedule theirs".

I do similar when someone tries to schedule a meeting outside of my "office hours" (which also effect the availability shown in the calendaring-system).

Show threadSemitonesJun 4, 2024
@cstross I'm pretty sure I saw an episode of "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" about using magic to make a copy of yourself appear present somewhere. It went about how you'd expect
Show threadTaffer 🇨🇦Jun 4, 2024

@cstross lol, fire executives… I do like the optimism though

☹️

Show threadjwzJun 4, 2024
@cstross Back in 1993, I talked to a team at SGI who were building one of the first multi-person video chat apps. Since they were building it, they used it constantly. And the FIRST TWO THINGS THEY DID were: 1) a plugin that played a 5 second loop of you looking like you were still there; and 2) a plugin that would detect lulls in conversation and say "Mmm hmmm" in your voice.
Show threadAlan Langford 🇨🇦🧤🧊摏Jun 4, 2024
@jwz @cstross Dress codes have thankfully changed but I have a note in my "things to patent later" list from the early 80's that would adjust your clothing to make it look like you're wearing a suit while still in your PJs.
Show threadmr brown  Jun 4, 2024
@cstross why do you assume three meetings are scheduled for the same organization?
Show threadGoupilleauJun 5, 2024

@cstross Executives often seem to forget that the price of a single meeting can easily reach more than a hundred dollars because even a one hour meeting will cost the sum of every participant's hourly salary.

Using AI to hold more meetings is not mitigating that.

Show threadNexJqlJun 5, 2024
@cstross unfortunately 75% of my workplace meetings are a time drain that could've been handled by a few emails.
Show threadSepidehJun 10, 2024
@cstross We attempted to use the built in meeting summary AI tools in Zoom, and it connected ideas that were brought up in the discussion that were not connected at all and just misrepresented what was said.
Show threadᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIESJun 10, 2024

@sepdroid @cstross

the AI summary of your comment says you love AI tools in Zoom

(/s)

Show threadmutualJun 10, 2024
@cstross rip david graeber you would have loved to see even more evidence society is full of bs jobs
Show threadKevin RiggleJun 10, 2024
@mutual_ayyde @cstross or more like bullshit management
Show threadKevin RiggleJun 10, 2024
@mutual_ayyde @cstross coordination work is real work. good executives make it easier (but not too easy—again, it's real work), bad executives make it somewhere between hard and impossible, but sure value the performance of it over the actuality of it
Show threadInsertUserJun 10, 2024
@cstross "meetings will continue until we figure out why no work is getting done"