The script doesn’t go away when you replace a helpdesk operator with ChatGPT. You just get a script-reading interface without empathy and a severally hindered ability to process novel issues outside it’s protocol.

The humans you speak to could do exactly what you’re asking for, if the business did not handcuff them to a script.

But they do handcuff them to a script… at least 1st and 2nd level tech support. That’s the point. It’s so fucking awful. It’s a barrier to keep you from the more highly paid tech support people who may actually be able to answer your questions. First you have to wait on hold to make sure you think it’s worth wasting their time on your annoying problem, THEN it’s a maze you have to navigate, and then whoops you just got hung up on… so sorry, start all over! LLMs are (can be) so much better at this!

I understand their limitations, but you’re overselling the negative. They’re fucking awesome for what they can do, but they have drawbacks that you must be aware of. Just as it’s lame to be an AI fanboi, it’s equally lame to be an AI luddite.

That’s 99% of what I’m looking for. If I’m figuring something out by myself, I’m not looking it up on the internet.

I’m an engineer and I’ve found LLMs great for helping me understand an issue. When you read something online, you have to translate from what the author is saying into your thinking and I’ve found LLMs are much better at re-framing information to match my inner dialog. I often find them much more useful than google searches in trying to find information.

I already use LLMs to problem solve issues that I’m having and they’re typically better than me punching questions into Google. I admit that I’ve once had an llm hallucinate while it was trying to solve a problem for me, but the vast majority of the time it has been quite helpful. That’s been my experience at least. YMMV.

If you think LLMs suck, I’m guessing you haven’t actually used telephone tech support in the past 10 years. That’s a version of hell I wish on very few people.

I am totally looking forward to AI customer support. The current model of a person reading a scripted response is painful and fucking awful and only rarely leads to a good resolution. I would LOVE an AI support where I could just describe the problem and it gives me answers and it only asks relevant follow up questions. I can’t wait.

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It’s a common phrase for to describe prioritizing bad news over normal news in media… basically saying bad shit gets top billing on news outlets. For example, murder, accidents, deaths, etc, they will lead the news feeds. This tends to give watchers/readers a skewed perspective as to how bad things are in the world. For example, murder rates may be down but media constantly hyping up the latest murders may get people to think it’s the worst it’s ever been… reality be damned.

Every company you’ve ever worked for has enough work for a full time graphic designer? I’ve worked at some bigger companies that had someone for that role, but mostly no, the companies don’t have people for small tasks that don’t come up too often. That means people have to move out of their lane and do some additional work. That’s a lot of what working at a smaller company is all about. You wear many hats and many of them you learn on the job. Engineers tend to be near the top of the food chain in terms of figuring stuff like that so they get those tasks sometimes.

This life in a small company. How has this never been something you’ve had to deal with?

I am an engineer. I’ve been an engineer for 25 years. I manage a team of engineers. I think I have a very good idea of the job role of an engineer, thank you.

An engineer often has to figure things out. This is not some line worker being asked to weld when they don’t know how. This is simply a “do some google searches and follow them” type of task. This should be well within the capabilities of an engineer to handle.

I’m with you. The company is paying you for your time and if learning a new task is what you’re getting paid for, great. If they “punish” you for it, for example “now you have to stay late and finish your other work” or you get dinged for not meeting your regular metrics, then they’re full of shit. But if the request is simply please take care of this thing because we don’t have an expert to can, then you just do it. I don’t get what the issue is. It’s interesting new stuff you get to learn.

However to be honest, I am in management and I manage a team of engineers, and I expect to them to be flexible individuals. Sometimes they’re doing technical drawings, sometimes new development, sometimes assembling prototypes with tweezers, sometimes they’re learning new software, and sometimes they have to create renders for customer presentations. If any of them gave me shit about “not my responsibility” I’d be pretty pissed off because IMHO an engineer needs to be a flexible individual especially in a small company.

Um… that’s not quite right. Here’s the thing, if you earn $100k and invest it in pre-tax (401k) or post-tax (Roth), and you pay the same tax rate throughout, then with both investment strategies you will end up with EXACTLY the same amount of money. The only benefit of a Roth is if you assume you have a higher tax rate in the future when you want to pull it out. If your tax rate is the same both now and in the future, then Roth and 401k are equivalent investment vehicles. If you don’t believe me, do the math yourself.

Slightly more detail. The reason this is true is that return on your investment and the tax are both percentages of your base investment and the math doesn’t care which order you multiply one versus the other. So let’s say you make a 500% return on your investment and the tax rate is 30%

$100k * (0.7 tax rate) * (5 ROI) = $350k Tax first Roth

$100k * (5 ROI) * (0.7 tax rate) = $350k Tax after 401k

So the take-aways are:

401k wins if you have company matching. ALWAYS invest at least up to company matching because that’s free money.

Roth wins if your tax rate in the future is higher than now. (this is not necessarily a good bet because your tax rate will probably be lower once you’re retired.)