Godfather of AI Geoffrey Hinton 60 Minutes Interview

If a media request comes out of the blue, they're printing a story at the end of the day and if you want to affect the narrative you have a small window to respond. Likewise if someone is making a decision, you either weigh in when asked or don't.

Not really an option of disconnecting or not,things will just move without you and you'll be cleaning it up later.

 

As soon as I walk out that door, work is gone.

 

As long as it doesn't mean more work for you as a "reward" for your efficiency, I would be all for it. Right now, AI cannot really help me much in my job, as I write some powershell scripts for my office, but am not a developer or anything, nor do I have to write big tech manuals or SOPs. As I said earlier, all of my emails and correspondence is usually terse, to the point of "No", "Yes" or "WTF are you trying to say?".

 

I would say that I’m very jealous but I suppose it would be disingenuous. If I wanted that I could aim in a direction where I could get there and live a comfortable life, there’s just other things I want more (and I’m not talking just money).

 

I learned long ago, for me personally, that any of that stuff you are going for is pointless. No one on their death bed says "I wish I spent more time at work." It is always "I wish I had spent more time with my family" or "Wish I had taken more time to do [various fun activities]". And money only gets you so much happiness.

And again, this is for me. Not trying to project onto you or anyone else.

 

No I’m with you. In my mind I’m gonna chase the career stuff but only to the extent that I can do it and be as good of a Dad / as present as my Dad was for me. And if I get where I’d like to be career wise that’s great, but I’ll get by just fine regardless.

 

would be nice. Hasn’t been like that for me as my schedule isn’t set and dealing with people in different time zones, intl etc. Turns off when I sleep and back on when I get emails from UK that came over at 2 AM. Sometimes read them when I pee. Haven’t had a true vacation with no phone or email access ever.
Sounds miserable but I’m used to it and have some freedom. I may be busy for 2 hours then nothing for a few then busy again.
I must add I’ve never missed a kid event or game, etc thru 3 kids which has been awesome, and I work from home so I see them a lot.

 

Why do you people answer if you're off the clock? If I answer the phone I charge that time. If I can't charge that time I don't answer.

 

I work 40 hours a week. I would prefer to spend that 40 hours doing interesting things rather than mundane mindless tasks. That's how I'm wired. If I'm not solving problems I'm not having fun.

 

I used to be like that, somewhat. Now a days, it takes all my energy just to drag my ass into the office everyday.

 

I understand.

Things have changed.

I watched them change dramatically over my 30+ year career and into my retirement. I was lucky enough to see the changes coming, had established myself as critical and set boundaries before things became "expected". And things continue to change to the detriment of the guy/gal doing the work.

I was lucky enough to work for a corporation that allowed me to experience most major industries including CHQ. I will say, those in the major consulting firms and global services, where billable hours were the primary currency of the day, were the most toxic and unforgiving. Those folks never seemed to get a break and that is saying alot given my final years were as a member of the CHQ Legal team negotiating M&A's and other global deals.

I fully understand where the younger generations are coming from relative to selective work and personal time. IMO, it is their attempt to bring the line back closer to their wants/needs and why mid-career folks see them as "lazy", "selfish", "etc". It has some HR, Legal and Corporate execs scrambling. I suspect, another reason you see the push for growing AI, that does not challenge authority or need time off for family, friends, illness or sanity.

I may be completely off-base with my POV. I was always counseled not to wish my life away, but hearing folks talk and watching things transpire, I am glad I do not have to deal with today's work environment.

 

Because if I don't, they're going to do something and it will be my problem later anyway.

 

An effective manager/leader should recognize this trait and maximize it.

 

I just view it as I'm paid for 40 hours of time a week (or more if they give me over time and I agree to work it). If they want me to do stupid stuff instead of productive stuff then that's a management decision and if it happens a lot I just go get a new job.

 

I wish I had more time at work. But I have a big dream, that is way over the line of sanity...

I once thought: if I had an army of AI that could code, I could have them build out the things I don't have time to do, to fund the things I want to do. And we're close!

And before then, I thought: if I could build a legit simulation, could I advance it in time and have the simulation make scientific discoveries well before our time (like replication or... time travel). And that's a bit harder...

And then if we had all that, I could finally have the utopia people believe is impossible. But there is a chance, and so why not try?

 

I chuckled at the reference to international.

In the olden days before mobile phones really had affordable global reach, my company paid for a dedicated second line in my home (business phone). We were pioneering Work-at-Home for those of us that traveled. I happened to be sitting downstairs in my office playing a computer golf game when the business phone rang. It was around 10:00 p.m. I'm like WTF! Who is calling me so late? I answered out of curiosity and answered with my standard business greeting. There was silence. I repeated my business greeting. It was China entity. The guy was so shocked I answered so late he almost forgot what he was calling for. I told him to just read me what he was gonna tell me in my voicemail. If I can't answer your question, I'll get back to you tomorrow.

I anwered his question. Followed up with an email. I could tell he thought he was gonna have a couple of days waiting for a response. I laffed and resumed my computer golf game.

 

Because there really was no such thing as off the clock in my old job. I did charge the time though.

 

Ugh, this post needed a trigger warning. I've been there, really there. I'm still kind of in that spot, but where I am now if I get a call past normal working hours or when I've taken off, I don't mind taking it because it so rarely happens that it's anything more than a simple question like whether I can pick up or drop something off in the mail room the next time I'm in the office. The other, sky is falling or we're about to do something stupid, kind of calls happen maybe a few times a year, and I've only had to actually do anything besides give a simple answer once in two and a half years.

Some of my old jobs, I'd cringe every time the phone rang because there wa always an emergency or someone was about to or already had done something ill advised and wanted my help right then, right there.

 

Yeah, this is easily coming soon to a workplace near you. It's just moving up the food chain from folks who inserted tab A into slot B decades ago to folks who manage them.

On the overtime thing, within the last week I gave my college-age kids a lecture about overtime culture. My advice was to be wary of any place where folks bragged about overtime and treated those hours like a badge of honor. Places where this is prevalent often have management taking advantage of a workforce rather than hiring a sufficient number of bodies to fill roles from hourly workers and up. Even if someone regularly makes close to 150% or more of their weekly or monthly salary because of overtime, it can still represent savings to the employer over hiring another person based on direct and indirect costs depending on benefits packages, etc.

 

Yeah, the OT thing can be a warning sign. My first stint in management, I was surprised to learn that the company I worked for had a 120% rule for non-exempt employees. As a manager you got dinged if anybody hit the 125%. If you had a dept with a number of folks working 120% it was your job to seek additional HC. Same 120% applied to exempt, even though no OT was paid. This assumed productivity was maxed.

They frowned on paying continuous OT to non-exempt. They did not want folks to have the expectation that this would translate to their annual pay on a permanent basis. They were worried about what would happen if there was no OT and they got use to it. They wanted the manager to seek additional HC.

This thought process was the exception compared to other companies with hourly employees as you mention. And no, we did not lay people off. We moved them to other jobs if work dropped off. This policy happened for about the first 20 years of my career. It changed when they brought in an outside hire as CEO. Then layoffs, benefit reductions, pension removal, off shoring for cheaper labor, outrageous utilization rates, etc. We became just another brick in the wall.