u/Yetanotherdeafguy

How well would you say your firm applies what it sells externally, internally?

Are your internal processes and controls adequate?

Is your technology reasonably optimised (especially the stuff that's not directly tied to client work)?

Does the company use decent L&D and change management approaches whenever major changes/restructures occur?

I've always found we suck in this regard - I'm curious if I'm alone.

(This is not a convoluted attempt to generate ironic leads, fuck that).

Finance noob here.

SpaceX is IPOing, and it looks like the shadiest rug pull to ever hit the NASDAQ (or wherever the hell it's going).

Thanks to some shitfuckery, it sounds like SpaceX will hit Index funds pretty quick and gain immediate access to stupid amounts of money for Elon.

Knowing it varies by fund, how likely are Super Funds to be hit by the inevitable plummet in value when a certain individual becomes a trillionaire and the market starts to realize the actual value of this house of cards?

Today, the Facebook algorithm fed me Angus Taylors latest move - complaining in direct and alarmist terms that the ALP government is a socialist government.

Link: https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1C9zBnAVHH/

All discussions about what socialism is aside, this is a really concerning change in rhetoric for one major reason - fear mongering about socialism is a core tenet of the conservative strategy in the US to convince voters to vote against their own interests.

But it goes further from there. Anecdotally, the Australian right has really dialed up the culture war imports from America lately - and it's no longer just the fringe right doing this.

Fear campaigns about Socialism (and intentional conflations with communism), consistent and intentional misreads by the media of government policies and initiatives, and a spike in culture warrior posting / commenting on social media all seem to be escalating.

Parts of Australia are trying on MAGA for the first time, and to some it's a really snug fit.

Historically, importing MAGA has failed - I'd argue because Aussies are generally pretty chill and don't really want regular enraged politics being on the menu 24/7 - and arguably MAGA is the politics of nationalism via cultivated and directed outrage and 'owning' the left.

But I believe our immunisation from MAGA is fading, and we need to consider what that means.

Between how poorly the media communicated the impacts of the budget, how the LNP has embraced xenophobia and racism from ON, and how consistently Murdoch's outlets have blamed Albo for everything, I think I can finally see that outrage come online akin to early MAGA. People are mad, and many don't consciously know why - but they've been conditioned to believe that things cost more because of the left (in general), and Albo is the epitome of all things leftist.

The most dangerous part of this whole movement isn't Pauline becoming PM - we need to accept that this is possible albeit she has shown no historical skills in keeping a party together - I have my doubts as to whether it'd last long, but it can happen.

No, the biggest threat we face is the evolution of our national approach to politics. It's no longer a thing the average citizen does on the side every couple of years - it's gradually shifting to become a team sport - a key part of some people's identity, and a reason to hate your neighbours.

I hated Scotty as PM. He refused accountability, generally picked his own self interest, and regularly made poor decisions that made things worse. I never hated those who voted for his party, though I did get exasperated at times with how he was all slogans no delivery. That's my opinion, right or not.

But now its not enough to oppose / dislike / hate the politician or the party. The entire 'side' is to blame. The evil present isn't the ALP / Albanese government, it's 'the left' - this vague description of anyone who supports LGBTQ folks, or supports social programs like Medicare, or now supports making housing affordable by reducing its use as an investment vehicle.

To be clear, this isn't a 'the right are at fault here' - there are elements of the left doing this to various degrees - especially in how they smugly dismiss One Nation voters as idiots. I'm guilty of this myself on occaision.

But this goes deeper and more radical. The next step in this evolution is people becoming convinced the other side aren't just wrong about their views, but that they're intentionally sabotaging the country for some nefarious agenda.

"It's not that the left have the wrong idea about the economy, it's that they're socialist communist scum who want to bring the country down!"

Or

**"Paulines fans would rather handover the country to Gine Rinehart than allow non-white immigrants into the country"*

When this rhetoric is normalised, it easily degrades into escalations in self-justifying hate and violence - after all, if the other side are going to (non-metaphorically) destroy the country and life I love, they must be stopped!

The media escalates too, like a school kid egging on 2 other kids fighting, knowing they won't be the ones getting expelled. They sensationalise and exaggerate one-off small events as being representative of entire movements - views go up and outrage increases, and the vicious cycle escalates.

I'm worried that the addictive feeling of being part of an in-group will catch on, that the mentality of divisive righteousness from MAGA or Reform UK will transplant over here.

I'm worried that in a few short months / years, my neighbour and I will be as hateful of each other as they are in the US.

So this is my plea to you all, regardless of your views:

• Criticize your media diet. The moment you feel anything approaching anger, hate, contempt or smugness - ask yourself what made you feel that way. The media can make the same factual statement 5 different ways and each way can blame / support a different agenda. For example - It shouldn't be a political statement to say opposing Israel isn't opposing Jews in general - yet elements of the media intentionally conflate those terms to stop meaningful discussion on that topic.

• Approach things with empathy. Learn why the opposition feel the way they do - let them speak about it without criticism, and ask to explain your views. Challenge each other, but don't attack each other.

• Remember that, for the most part, the only truly evil people here are those who actively seek to divide and misinform us. Whether it's for profit, influence, or some sick desire to create a fucked up world - *they* are the people who should be made accountable. Both sides *must* continue to find and celebrate any middle ground we have, and need to call out those who intentionally break the social cohesion. We can (and should) disagree, but let's do so civilly!

I've enjoyed AI as a gimmick, but due to multiple long term engagements with explicit requirements not to use AI, I've never used it on a job meaningfully - though I do appreciate it can do wonderful things with minor tasks.

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The case for Skepticism

• Quality of work - AI work requires review. We've all seen the shit it pulls, from hallucinations, to rambling sentences, to just a general inability to genuinely and intuitively analyse data provided.

Anecdotal evidence here, but I find I'm much more effective at reviewing a piece of work if I've written it from scratch, than if the whole thing is created by somebody/something else. Reviewing work is arguably the harder skill than writing it, and AI makes it so our jobs become more the latter than the former.

• Long term model collapse / Death of Innovation - in general terms, LLMs create content based on an existing database of works, mapping commonalities based on prompt to generate 'new' material. Longer term adoption results in all/most source material being AI generated - meaning micro-mistakes that start out as one-offs become common repeated mistakes.

Innovation dies when you only source from prior works, and so suddenly your materials produced become the same, slowly degrading rubbish.

• Impacts to the user - We've seen multiple cases of negative impacts to users. From AI driving people to delusion or suicide, to simply reducing the ability of users to critically analyse a dataset / issue and resolve it themselves.

• Environmental impacts - The cooling/water/power/space needs are massive. No further explanation required.

• Economic Impacts (individual) - Since the beginning of automation, job loss has been the concern - but if even half the preached about benefits of AI come true, that's societal-level impacts in terms of job losses with no redeployment opportunities. Musk and Altman proudly proclaim nobody will have to work in an AI future - and maybe that utopia is possible - but how do people earn a living then if major percentages of the workforce (especially entry level roles) die off??

• The 'AI Bubble' - Musk and Altman are not alone in this, but they have (and will) pulled major financial voodoo, especially with the coming IPOs. It's not understating to say this can (and likely will) end up fucking over massive amounts of people, especially since the rules changed allowing them to rapidly enter the range where index funds come into play. It's a scary world of finance voodoo between chip suppliers, AI companies, and other stakeholders that *screams* house of cards.

• Unclear value proposition - We're still working out AI. I saw a comment on this subreddit speaking about how no AI project they'd seen had ever had a positive ROI. We know it can do cool shit, I don't doubt that - but it feels like many (we especially) try to force-feed AI into everything, regardless of whether it works, is cost efficient, or in some cases is even asked for.

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The Question:

A few months ago I was asked to do an internal survey - "How do you feel [firm] is managing their environmental impact?"

At this point it all hit me - we're some of the strongest non-AI Industry advocates for a technology that's incredibly destructive on multiple fronts - and we continue to march forward with little regard for this.

How can those who've honestly appraised AI as not the solution to everything speak up, when the industry is all in on this stuff??

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Note: some people may think this is AI written - I've been accused of writing in that manner in the past. I'm autistic, not a fucking LLM.