# Deskilling on the Job ![[Attachments/81aa58a40ccc4ae2e61066f7d3b51add_MD5.jpg]] ## Metadata - Author: [[zephoria]] - Full Title: Deskilling on the Job - Category: #articles - Date: 2023-08-08 - URL: http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2023/04/21/deskilling-on-the-job.html - [ ] #toFile ➕ 2023-08-08 - [ ] #toProcess ➕ 2023-08-08 ## Highlights added 2023-08-08 - most in Camp Automation tend to panic and refuse to engage with how their views might intersect with late-stage capitalism, structural inequality, xenophobia, and political polarization. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h7a7pxwg3w2sn3jf7vxzmj25)) - But there are also plenty of folks who have studied enough history to have watched how fantasies of automation repeatedly turn into an augmented reality sans ugly headwear ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h7a7qvg0m977ptz0kb2x9gg3)) - Note: What does that mean? - I find this existential angst-ing exhausting for its failure to understand how this is at the core of philosophy ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h7a7rxed79z3nj2vm9d88zxg)) - Note: Did Angst propel me towards philosophy this year? Or rather curiosity and enthusiasm? Maybe both? More curiosity though, ai angst stopped after using these things for long enough - Camp Automation sees the sky as falling. Camp Augmentation is more focused on how things will just change ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h7a7v1szwn3yjk6xb38c5h7d)) - Note: The two camps are what I addressed right in my first post about ai ethics, and at the heart of what I build and for whom. It might be interesting tk write an article about the seo tool - what changes should we interrogate more deeply? The first instinct is to focus on how ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h7a7zndf51tfbddajrmnnvs2)) - Note: Indeed I should think about that more - The planes crashed and the humans got blamed for not picking up the pieces left behind by the machine. This is what Madeleine calls the [“moral crumple zone.”](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2757236) Humans were placed into the loop in the worst possible ways ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h7a81j2mgkk0pnczwsfdrd69)) - Pilots train extensively to fly a plane. And then they get those jobs, where their “real” job is to babysit a machine ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h7a820wc61yzgdbde8rtpn8t)) - It means that those pilots who are at the front of every commercial plane are less skilled, less capable of taking over from the machine as the years go by. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h7a82wnmxbna92kntrty13y2)) - Note: And there is less satisfaction too, if you don’t let the user focus on the creative part of their skill - he had to override the air traffic controllers. They wanted him to go to Teterboro ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h7a84vp6d9h2abpax5y8x7gq)) - Note: Is that part really about automation however? Just because the model the atc has is computer driven? That feels unrelated to the topic, in some ways I can’t fully write down. Interesting tension - Moreover, computer systems that he couldn’t override prevented him from a softer impact ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h7a88g2pk7hrggrp017kdqkh)) - Note: Interesting, which ones? - He’s a pilot who hasn’t been deskilled on the job. Not even a little bit. But that’s not the case for most pilots ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h7a89pt83s36y1369syxzd7k)) - Note: Doesn’t that in some way happen for most skills however, even with no autopilot? You don’t get to practice emergency stuff because we’ll there no emergencies. Wouldn’t a pilot be des killed too if they have control at all times for boring flights? I don’t know enough about aviation to really understand the role of the autopilot in deskilling and how much the job is just “hand holding”. - Royal Air Force. When he signed up for the job, he didn’t know how to fly. Of course not. He was taught on the job. And throughout his career, he was taught a whole slew of things on the job. Training was an integral part of professional development in his career trajectory. He was shipped off for extended periods to learn management training. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h7a8dz9fw8qy6ya1hwvky830)) - Note: I think it’s the active training on the job part that’s important here and maybe that’s the point she is making, that augmentation makes the need for training more salient. But if you design the augmentation in the first place to put th human in charge of “growing” tasks (tasks that grow the users agency and creativity), you can actually make the learning on the job part of the core task itself - But sadly, we don’t even build many structures to create software engineers on the job ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h7a8mxbypzpy1sh13rg92s99)) - Note: Apprenticeship in general - The work that young lawyers do is junk labor. It is dreadfully boring and doesn’t require a law degree. Moreover, a lot of it is automate-able in ways that would reduce the need for young lawyers. But what does it do to the legal field to not have that training? What do new training pipelines look like ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h7a8p1c5kpaa8ddg58t2p31s)) - Note: Is the deskilling danger that real in law? What is the role of clerks in a world where llms need to be scrutinized so closely. Is their responsibility augmented because of that? Lawyers care about the result and since the model itself can either be something like better search, or something that needs to be handheld, then someone will have to do the handholding, which is not automatabke, and (and this really depends on the details) potentially more fulfilling, if built in user centric fashion (and those tools have maybe the most potential to be adopted widely by people who care about results)? It would be interesting indeed to see the developments in law, but in handholding models all day long and it’s really fun - you now have tools at your disposal that can help you cut corners in new ways (or outright cheat). But what if we deskill young people through technology? How do we help them make the leap into professions that require more advanced skills? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h7aarmk34swxrxct1tgz0s08)) - Note: Why do students feel compelled to cheat on arbitrary tests in the first place? oO - Why? Because on Monday, a surgeon is refreshed but a tad bit rusty. By Tuesday, they’re back in the groove but not exhausted. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h7aat73kda7qnn8922nz4yeg)) - Note: Nice anecdote but is that a true fact that surgeries on tuesdays go better? - Where that holds up to evidence-based scrutiny, I don’t know, but it seems like a sensible myth of the profession. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h7aavakf4fagdzkxjxsar9z4)) - Note: Haha so says she - Efficiency isn’t simply about maximizing throughput. It’s about finding the optimum balance between quality and quantity. I’m super intrigued by professions that use junk work as a buffer here ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h7aawwyxw78xzkzrc1vwxpjm)) - Note: Interesting - But is the answer to schedule more surgeries? Or is the answer to let doctors have more downtime? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h7aaxc4tp5p6wnv1kyyq74ar)) - Note: That is indeed the whole question! - Much to my chagrin, we tend to optimize towards more intense work schedules whenever we introduce new technologies while downgrading the status of the highly skilled person. Why? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h7aay92wdggcpbhybnp1m2mh)) - Note: Why indeed? - If we expect humans to be able to take over from machines during crucial moments, those humans must retain strong skills. Loss of knowledge has serious consequences locally and systemically. (See: loss of manufacturing knowledge in the US right now… ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h7ab1sgwxrxmq6nwtq7bq25x)) - Note: I think the whole premise of “take over when x” is the problem. A human wants to be engaged at all time, in fact rote work is something that leads you to check out rather than be fully engaged in mentality. Handiwork that seems menial is also where much quality can be created when doing more manual work, because there is constant attention. Maybe attention is a key term here, in terms of self fulfillment in a moral/philosophical sense too, not just being engaged, but indeed finding transcendence - but I am worried that we will use AI to wage war on our own labor forces in pursuit of efficiency. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h7ab703874pd4k9cckgedxnx)) - Note: Very true I think. And I’m not a pessimist overall