The great tech wake-up call: Developers, meet the dystopia you helped build
Marco van Hurne
I build AI companies | Data Science Strategy | Data Governance | Certified AI Compliance Officer | The Future Group | Beyond the Cloud | Author of the Machine Learning Book of Knowledge
Alright, folks, pull up a chair and grab a hankie because the tech industry is having an existential crisis.
It would be hilarious if it ain't that we all are indirectly in the line of fire. Because nearly all billion-dollar companies like Salesforce, Amazon, , Oracle, and Cisco, Intell, Dell, Meta, Google, Microsoft, Tesla, Apple, just to name a few, have apparently just discovered that a lot of their $300k-per-year developers are doing...well, let’s just call it “performance art” disguised as work.
Yes, dear reader, it turns out some engineers are pushing a grand total of two code changes per month, and are sipping their $7 oat milk lattes and scheduling Slack messages for 2 a.m. to look busy.
Bravo, you magnificent grifters.
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The art of doing nothing loudly
Enter the “Quiet Quitting Playbook”, which is not about laziness and more about weaponized mediocrity. The QQP is a symphony of fake productivity hacks: marking yourself as “in a meeting” on Slack.
Bonus points if it’s recurring, and extra super bonus points if you are using Marty McTech’s life hack
Another idea is asking for formal tickets for every minor task (“Can you JIRA that for me?”), and blaming “build system issues” for any delay longer than five minutes. Oh, I nearly forgot the pièce de résistance, which is using AI tools to churn out meaningless code refactors that look impressive to non-technical managers.
This isn’t not survival, people. Only in the eyes of the people that are trapped in the system it is… because it’s art.
If there were an Olympic event for feigned busyness, these engineers would be dripping in gold medals. But hey, can we really blame them? They’ve hacked a system designed to reward output over outcomes. It’s not their fault the corporate overlords didn’t bother to read the fine print on those VC term sheets.
Enter the Elon Musk doctrine: Fewer hoomans, same results
Remember when Elon Musk fired 80% of Twitter’s workforce and the site somehow didn’t implode (well, not immediately)?
Turns out, that wasn’t a fluke.
It was a case study.
The tech bros are now realizing that maybe, just maybe, they’ve been paying a lot of people to shuffle tickets around and argue about tabs versus spaces. The viral thread that started this dumpster fire points out that many large tech firms could slash their engineering teams without even sweating.
I think that we all need to take note and realize that if your job can be replaced by an AI tool or outsourced to someone earning one-tenth of your salary, you’re probably living on borrowed time.
And oh, the irony!
The very developers who spent years perfecting automation to drive the blue color workers out of a job are now staring down the barrel of their own demise.
Karma’s a GitHub repo, isn’t it?
Developers vs. Algorithms
Now let’s talk about AI for a chance, because why nut.
These tools once created by developers, mind you, are now the enforcers of the “ruthless efficiency paradigm”. Microsoft grew its revenue by $50 billion while keeping headcount flat. Meta quadrupled its market cap while laying off 20% of its staff.
How did they do it ya ask?
They used AI to do the jobs of the very engineers who trained the models.
Oh, karma is a 01100010 01101001 01110100 01100011 01101000
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I think we all get it by now….
It’s like Frankenstein, except the monster isn’t rampaging through the village. The ugly b**** is sitting quietly in the cloud, and is taking your job one pull request at a time.
And you know what the thing is, that is truly cynical?
The same developers who built these tools are now using them to churn out nonsense work, padding their productivity stats while the AI does the actual work.
We are living in a snake-eating-its-own-tail level of corporate absurdity.
White collar apocalypse: The tech edition
This is not something which is tied to tech. It’s a white-collar reckoning.
I just love the word reckoning. Sounds wild west. It’s a word dripping with drama and weight. It is one of those terms that feels like it should come with ominous background music…..
By emphasize this word, you ask..
Well…lemme tell ya.
Across banking, media, marketing, and more, companies are slashing jobs, freezing hires, and replacing human workers with AI or cheaper sh*** talent, augmented by AI. The job market has become a Hunger Games arena where six-month searches and 40% pay cuts are the new normal.
But let’s get real though.
This isn’t some grand economic transformation.
It is a tech industry hangover after a decade-long binge of VC-funded excess.
Companies are finally sobering up and realizing that maybe, just maybe, paying someone $250,000 to write Python scripts isn’t the pinnacle of operational efficiency.
Sorry, my dear friends, the full-stack hero’s of my network.
For the developers, not the AI
Don’t misunderstand me. This aint an anti-developer rant.
It’s a wake-up call for the industry that created this mess.
Developers are the heart and soul of tech, and without them, there’s no AI, no automation, no progress. But let’s not kid ourselves: the system is broken.
If you’re a developer, now’s the time to reclaim your craft. Build something meaningful. Push back against the toxic efficiency culture that’s turning your work into a game of “who can look busiest.”
Because if you don’t, the AI is just gonna come for your job.
And to the friggin’ billionaires who are cutting jobs and hoarding yachts at the same time: enjoy your “efficiency”.
Just don’t be surprised when the people who built your empire decide to tear it down.
Ah, the prospect of it !
Signing off from the dystopian trenches—Marco
Well, that's a wrap for today. Tomorrow, I'll have a fresh episode of TechTonic Shifts for you. If you enjoy my writing and want to support my work, feel free to buy me a coffee ♨️
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Running faster in a slow environment can break everything. The businesses need to pay the highly productive employees more and let them work together in a highly productive environment where the results are remunerated. Placing one highly productive employee under the supervision of a ... junior manager will only force the people to work on a steady pace supported by the entire team. Hiring a highly productive employee and not allow it to push/break everything it desire AND ignore the complaints of the ones that cannot keep up means that you basically say to the "geniuses" : slow down, wait for us. A "senior" programmer can write in a day 100 lines of code in a critical section and a junior programmer can write 1000 lines of code on a non critical section. The one who made this "statistics" is ... a " genius " 👏🙌
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2wThis insight underscores a pivotal moment in the tech industry—a call to adapt and evolve. The rise of AI-driven efficiency is reshaping traditional workflows, challenging both companies and professionals to rethink their value proposition. Rather than viewing this shift as a threat, it’s an opportunity to embrace upskilling and innovation. Developers and tech professionals can focus on higher-order problem-solving, creative applications, and tasks that require human intuition—areas where AI complements rather than replaces. For companies, this is a chance to reallocate resources towards more impactful innovation, making the most of AI while fostering an agile, forward-thinking workforce. It’s a challenging yet exciting era for those ready to grow alongside the technology!
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2wAn insightful and thought-provoking piece, Marco van Hurne. It’s crucial for developers to reflect on the impact of the technologies we create. As much as innovation drives progress, it’s our responsibility to ensure ethical considerations and societal well-being are at the forefront. Thank you for sparking this important conversation!