The Coders Programming Themselves Out of a Job

The Coders Programming Themselves Out of a Job

When workers automate(ˈôtəˌmāt) their own duties(ˈd(y)o͞otē), who should reap(rēp) the benefits?

By Brian(breˈən) Merchant(ˈmərCHənt)

In 2016, an anonymous(əˈnänəməs) confession(kənˈfeSHən) appeared on Reddit(re): “From around six years ago up until now, I have done nothing at work.” As far as office confessions go, that might seem pretty tepid(ˈtepid). But this coder, posting as FiletOFish1066(fiˈlā,ˈfilā), said he worked for a well-known tech company, and he really meant nothing. He wrote that within eight months of arriving(əˈrīv) on the quality(ˈkwälətē)-assurance(əˈSHo͝orəns) job, he had fully automated his entire(ənˈtī(ə)r) workload(ˈwərkˌlōd). “I am not joking. For 40 hours each week, I go to work, play League(lēg) of Legends(ˈlejənd) in my office, browse(brouz) Reddit, and do whatever I feel like. In the past six years, I have maybe done 50 hours of real work.” When his bosses(bäs,bôs) realized that he’d worked less in half a decade than most Silicon(-kən,ˈsiləˌkän) Valley(ˈvalē) programmers do in a week, they fired him.

The tale(tāl) quickly went viral(ˈvīrəl) in tech corners of the web, ultimately(ˈəltəmitlē) prompting(ˈprämptiNG) its protagonist(prōˈtagənist) to delete(dəˈlēt) not just the post, but his entire account.

About a year later, someone calling himself or herself Etherable posted a query to Workplace on Stack Exchange, one of the web’s most important forums(ˈfôrəm) for programmers: “Is it unethical(ˌənˈeTHikəl) for me to not tell my employer(emˈploi-ər
) I’ve automated my job?” The conflicted(ˈkänˌflikt) coder described accepting a programming gig(gig) that had turned out to be “glorified(ˈglôrəˌfīd) data entry(ˈentrē)”—and, six months ago, writing scripts that put the entire job on autopilot(ˈôdōˌpīlət). After that, “what used to take the last guy like a month, now takes maybe 10 minutes.” The job was full-time, with benefits, and allowed Etherable to work from home. The program produced near-perfect results; for all management knew, its employee simply did flawless(ˈflôləs) work.

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https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/10/agents-of-automation/568795/