this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 248 points 7 months ago (3 children)

All you need to know is that he labeled himself as a consultant. Which reminds me of this joke.

Once upon a time there was a shepherd tending his sheep at the edge of a country road. A brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee screeches to a halt next to him.

The driver, a young man dressed in a Brioni suit, Cerrutti shoes, Ray-Ban glasses, Jovial Swiss wrist watch and a BHS tie gets out and asks the shepherd: "If I guess how many sheep you have, will you give me one of them?" The shepherd looks at the young man, then looks at the sprawling field of sheep and says: "Okay."

The young man parks the SUV, connects his notebook and wireless modem, enters a NASA site, scans the ground using his GPS, opens a database and 60 Excel tables filled with algorithms, then prints a 150 page report on his high tech mini printer. He then turns to the shepherd and says:"You have exactly 1,586 sheep here. "

The shepherd answers: "That's correct, you can have your sheep."The young man takes one of the animals and puts it in the back of his vehicle. The shepherd looks at him and asks: "Now, if I guess your profession, will you pay me back in kind?" The young man answers: "Sure." The shepherd says: "You are a consultant." "Exactly! How did you know," asks the young man? Very simple, answers the shepherd. "First, you came here without being called. Second, you charged me a fee to tell me something I already knew. Third, you do not understand anything about my business and I'd really like to have my dog back."

[–] [email protected] 74 points 7 months ago (1 children)

From my experience working for a management consulting firm. It's more like everyone knows what the problems are and how to fix them, but they are too scared of screwing up to do something about it.

So they hire a consultancy company to tell them what they already knew and take the blame if something goes wrong.

"No one ever gets fired for hiring McKinsey"

[–] [email protected] 39 points 7 months ago

“No one ever get fired for hiring McKinsey”

They fucking should. I mean, I understand why that doesn’t happen, given the world we live in, but man… McKinsey is fucking evil incarnate

[–] glimse 33 points 7 months ago

My old boss used to say, "a consultant is someone who borrows your watch and then charges you when you ask for the time"

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago (1 children)

A brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee screeches to a halt next to him. The driver, a young man dressed in a Brioni suit, Cerrutti shoes, Ray-Ban glasses, Jovial Swiss wrist watch and a BHS tie

As a long time consultant, this reminded me of Are you a prostitute or are you a consultant?

Specifically, "The client always thinks your “cut” of your billing rate is higher than it actually is, and in turn, expects miracles from you."

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I do NOT miss being yelled at by some middle management Kevin about how I'm charging them $275 per hour to justify their getting whatever crazy shit isn't in the purchase agreement. I wish I made $275/hour. That'd be amazing.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You weren't the consultant.

You were the subcontractor for the consultant.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

If that's true, then that makes all employees subcontractors.

Not all consultants are self employed.

[–] [email protected] 137 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I think the best part about this is the guy is saying that AI = 0. I want to hope that's intentional but I know it's not.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago

AI is standing in for the relativistic mass fraction. The faster the hype machine spins, the more AI matters.

[–] captainlezbian 107 points 7 months ago (1 children)

This is why businesspeople are kept in cages away from the scientist and engineer enclosures

[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 months ago (1 children)

If only. We really need to launch a population cull, their invasive behavior is endangering other species.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago (6 children)

We are on our way, problem is, the rich and the asocial are going to survive...

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[–] [email protected] 96 points 7 months ago (1 children)

This is so terrible it physically pains me.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago

This is terrible physics. It pains me

[–] Ragdoll_X 76 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

As someone who studied CS at uni for 3 years I saw first hand how there's plenty of idiots in this field. Two of my classmates identified as Nazis and thought that the holocaust didn't happen, besides a significant chunk leaning to the right more generally.

There's plenty of really smart people working in the field of AI, but there's also plenty of people who just think they're smart.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I think this pretty much applies to all fields. Everything looks complicated and hard to outside people, but once you get into the field, you realize that most people are just average.

[–] Bassman1805 33 points 7 months ago

Plus with very specialized fields you get the effect of "really great at this one thing and absolutely nothing else".

If that One Thing ends up being worth a lot of money, these people often end up with a SUPER inflated sense of self importance..

[–] [email protected] 71 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Alternate take: this is the same sort of mark self-sorting that scam artists use.

A reasonable person isn’t gonna reply to a typo-ridden email from a Nigerian prince. But those few who do are going to be easy to get everything from.

Imagine you’re an executive at the company your dad founded. You’re an idiot. Everyone knows you’re an idiot. But you think you’re smart. This guy is willing to consult with you about how your company will use AI (for a modest fee, of course). You don’t understand AI, but you think you do, and you just need someone to help with the details. And everyone has to nod their heads and agree to pay him because they’re afraid of getting fired.

You don’t have to fool everyone.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I have watched those exact guys eat an organization I worked for alive. At the end, they had like... 10 business consultants and 1 junior engineer. At an electronics engineering company.

https://i.natgeofe.com/n/4c509f20-8730-4cd1-a90b-6681394c92ca/NationalGeographic_1742512_3x2.jpg

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 7 months ago (3 children)

These people have zero idea how AI works

[–] [email protected] 39 points 7 months ago (1 children)

No, they know how it really works.

You write "AI" on something and you get paid more. It's like "organic" on food.

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[–] Srh 26 points 7 months ago (1 children)

These people have zero idea how anything works

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I can suggest an equation that has the potential to change the future...

E = MC² + S

S stands for sandwich...because I'm having one, for lunch...

[–] RizzRustbolt 10 points 7 months ago

And here I sit, sandwichless.

[–] xantoxis 9 points 7 months ago (1 children)

This revelation is about to change my whole lunch (I'm also gonna have a sandwich)

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 7 months ago

This is comically stupid

[–] LEDZeppelin 38 points 7 months ago (1 children)

AI is the crypto of 2024. Every Tom Dick and Harry is suddenly an expert in AI

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[–] roguetrick 38 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

AI=E-mc^2^

AI=0

Therefore, AI is useless.

Thank you for attending my talk.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 7 months ago

Who let the tedX drone out of their cage?

[–] niktemadur 29 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

TeChNoLoGy gUrU

Two can play that game, BiG gUy! Here goes:
iγ · δψ = mψ + NFT
Tokens for quantum computing!

EDIT: Quantum Cryptoken Dynamics!
Hey, look at me, I'm a Lemmy spiritual singularity money tech guru now!
Hi, mom!

[–] Aceticon 28 points 7 months ago

We the People Who Work In Tech, welcome you to the World of bullshit meisters making insane stuff up around your domain expertise area.

We've been living in it since at least the late 90s.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 7 months ago

LinkedIn lunatic

[–] skygirl 19 points 7 months ago

These are the people we've let run our society

[–] whotookkarl 19 points 7 months ago

Business homps trying to do math with no understanding or background smacks of clergy trying to do philosophy or athletes composing a symphony, sure you can try it but practically nobody is interested in your uninformed amateur gibberish nonsense.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago

Just because you had a thought, doesn’t mean you should write a TED talk on it.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago

You can suggest that. It shows the world that you're an idiot, but you are technically allowed to suggest it.

[–] HootinNHollerin 14 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Someone put that bro out to pasture he’s done

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

So AI = E - mc^2^?

That's some crazy physics right there.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago

So AI = 0? Sounds about right.

[–] ladicius 13 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Are those AI evangelists real? Or are they products or their products?

They sound like the latter to say the least.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

This guy's a consultant, he has to talk big.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

This has literally been written by a LLM, I’m sure of it

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Surprised no one else is saying this. It sounds exactly like an LLM, especially ChatGPT.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I think that fact was overshadowed by the likely stupidity of the original prompt. (“Add AI to e=mc^2” or something)

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I’m like 90% sure that post was AI generated

[–] supercriticalcheese 8 points 7 months ago

The 10% case it's not is even worse though.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago

Makes perfect sense. More AI means less matter and more energy.

[–] iAvicenna 9 points 7 months ago

people like this really do exist and not as a satire no

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

I think my brain just fell out.

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