Imran's Blog
Stuff I feel like blogging about.

Why are they forcing it?

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There's a lot I don't like about LLMs:

The most recent thing I don't like about them is how hard they are forced on me. For context I work at VC funded, publicly traded, "big" tech company (~500ish devs). The execs/leadership have lost their minds when it comes to LLMs. They are pushing a mandate that 100% of our code must be AI generated. All our career rubrics have been updated to focus primarily on AI. If you are not using AI in some way/shape/form you will be considered a low performer, regardless of output. Your promotion will not pass the committee unless your AI usage is adequate. If your project does not use AI in some way/shape/form it will not get funded. They are (very closely) tracking metrics like lines of code generated using LLMs, number of pull requests opened by LLMs, number of chats (and their frequency) with LLMs. How much AI spend you are incurring (through use, higher is better for some reason).

The messaging from top down is clear, you WILL make use of AI/LLMs or you won't have a job. They are forcing it. Forcing it HARD. Every all-hand's is just the execs trying to say the word AI as much as possible. We have to attend (multiple times a week btw) 2 hour AI workshops where all the middle managers clap and cheer about AI. The folks presenting in these workshops say stupid shit like "I used to spend 3 hours a day in my terminal trying to figure out how to use jq, but now AI has solved all my problems". The newest expectation that has been bequeathed to us is now we must have at least 4 agents running at all times (even after hours) so we can prove just how amazing and productive LLMs are.

All this triggers a simple question.

Why are they forcing it?

Why are they forcing it so hard?

None of my current chosen tools were forced upon me. I wasn't forced to use vim or emacs. jj wasn't forced upon me by some company mandate. I did not seek out linux as teenager because someone made me. I happened upon them because I had problems they could solve.

I have tried these AI/LLM tools and they just don't solve any problems I have. If these tools could live up to the hype, you wouldn't need to force it. If they were as useful and productivity boosting as claimed, every single engineer (of their own free will) would be using them to out compete their peers. You wouldn't need to change the career rubric, the old one would still hold up fine. You wouldn't need to track lines of code or pull requests, because the AI powered developer would stand heads and shoulders above their competition.

But they are not and that's why they are forcing it. They need to sell an illusion (to whom?). They are forcing usage upon everyone to force the hype into reality. To what ends? I do not know, but I do know its not going to be good for us (the plebs).

The other weird thing, that I can't articulate, is why do all these AI pushers sound the same? They all have the same talking points. The same tone, the same hyperbole. It's as if the over exposure to slop has fried their brains the same way.

It reminds me of a MLM thing an acquaintance once roped me into. Something about making 4% of your referrals sales in perpetuity (like a literal pyramid scheme). They all had the same laugh talking about how they would have quit their jobs sooner if they had known about this scam job sooner. How amazing it was that the folks at the top of the pyramid were vacationing on their yachts.

Which in turn reminds of when everyone was shilling their crypto scams and how they meme coins "were for people in the know" or "for the community". How the rest of us were in danger of being left behind once it moons.

Feeling a lot of the same culty vibes with this LLM shit and people pumping out 4 SaaS's a week using agents. Which only hammers home the point. If they lived up to the hype, no one would be forcing it down our throats.