There’s a lot packed into Ethan’s post, as there often is. As somebody who runs an engineering team, though, it was his thoughts on AI mandates that really stood out.
I’ve heard repeatedly about a kind of stifling social pressure: an implicit, unstated expectation that “AI” has to be seen as good and useful; pointing out limitations or raising questions feels difficult, if not dangerous.
I run a pretty small team. Some people on that team have been helped been AI. Others prefer to keep it out of their work. We ran a virtual retreat at one point, with AI at its center. We had discussions about the ethics of using it, pressure from our clients, and the ways that it enhances and potentially damages our everyday work.
If I mandated not only usage of AI, but optimism towards it, in our company, I would no longer trust the work that they were doing.