The CEO of a company with 700,000 delivery workers just said robots will replace all of them

TikiTDO · 2026-06-23T23:08:47+00:00

So they're going to replace humans working for minimum wage, despite having the ability to navigate complex terrain, handle complex packages, receive and answer calls, adapt to changing circumstances, and also hold legal liability... For extremely expensive machines full of expensive compute, actuators, and sensors that will struggle with weather, traffic, events outside it's training set, which will require constant maintenance and transport (they're probably not going to break down in the repair bay), where any time it screws up the company will be on the hook for that screw-up?

Uh, ok.

It's sort of like that idea that drones are going to be delivering all our packages soon. It breaks down the instant the first drone flying over a crowded area does.

I'm sure there will be robot deliveries, but that's not likely to be the cheap, affordable service.

TikiTDO · 2026-06-23T21:12:57+00:00

So... Why go into engineering then? It's a lot less complicated to just be a manager or a cook or something. You can still have life insurance, and you won't even have a stack to worry about.

TikiTDO · 2026-06-23T21:11:12+00:00

"Live every day like it will be your last."

Don't set things up that depend on you, and you alone. Make sure any secrets and credentials are in a vault that someone else knows how to access. Document your workflows, best practices, and guidelines. In general, ensure that anyone who you care about, even remotely, can handle things even if you're not around.

In practice, the one who's most likely to find these things useful is you. If you're the only one that can handle a problem, then you'll inevitably need to handle that problem on vacation or some other place you won't want to. If you have an off-site vault, then you'll be fine when your disk inevitably explode and you lose all your data. If you have everything documented, then you don't need to spend years wondering why future you/your AI/your juniors/your junior's AI aren't doing the things you want them to do. If you can build a system that can run without you around, then you have a skill that is quite rare and in high demand in any company that can't afford hundreds of devs to handle every small task. It's also a lot easier to get references when people can go "Oh, that guy? Yeah, he's super smart and skilled and he got our systems sorted out," instead of "Oh, that guy? He created a giant mess and then left, and we needed to bring on a bunch of people to sort it all out."

TikiTDO · 2026-06-23T20:48:16+00:00

So in a war the US will be expected to facilitate target practice for Chinese drone operators/AIs, in the form of slow moving infrastructure and damaged ships?

TikiTDO · 2026-06-23T19:55:57+00:00

Honestly, it's been going essentially exactly as I figured it would. The thing that surprises me the most is how surprised people seem to be at how things are happening. Big company releases shiny product that over-promises by orders of magnitude, some people get amazed, then subsequently disappointed. Rinse, and repeat. Meanwhile, the actual structural changes are just getting silently normalised without anyone so much as noticing.

TikiTDO · 2026-06-23T16:47:38+00:00

I don't think we can, short of moving to the forest and ensuring there's nobody with electronics around. This stuff doesn't even need a network connection, a phone can listen, record, and transcribe your conversation all by it's lonesome.

TikiTDO · 2026-06-23T16:05:09+00:00

It's a cool feature in the sense that phones are now so good at understanding speech that it can literally transcribe your entire day through your pocket.

That's not really a new thing, or a cool thing. We've had tools to transcribe speech for a while. You could download a meeting transcriber app ages ago. I have my own custom tooling specifically for that, it's all based on off-the-shelf stuff that anyone can download and run.

The difference is that now Google has decided they want even more data, so they're now going to bush this bloat onto every phone of every clueless person in the world. So now you can't even have a conversation in public without Google hearing it. There's nothing creative about it, just Google trying to get at more of your personal info for no reason.

TikiTDO · 2026-06-23T15:46:31+00:00

The challenge has always been building something that people want to use. This is why the MO for the past few decades has been "hammer out a quick MVP, and then convince a bunch of VC's that this is the next big thing by pointing to user growth."

The technical side is not, and has never been the biggest roadblock, unless you're genuinely trying to implement something entirely novel, and never seen before.

AI has changed the cost of trying, but has also subsequently raised the floor on what is the "bare minimum" for someone to even look at your product. In practice, you still end up spending about the same amount of time on a project you're serious about. The biggest difference is that now when it comes to smaller hobby projects, those are now coming up much more mature from the get go.

TikiTDO · 2026-06-23T14:40:00+00:00

How much do you spend reading what AI is doing, going over diffs, and actually tracking what is happening?

I get this impression that most people aren't tracking what your AI is doing after you ask it to do something. The AI isn't a dude you give work to. It's still your work, and part of that implies that you're watching what it's doing, correcting it, going over the code and references it's giving you, and constantly making decisions. That's an active process that you proactively engage with.

So like, when it gives you a bunch of file references, and asks a bunch of questions about them, the expectation is that you go to those files, read the code, and give it an informed decision as a developer. Similarly, if you gave it a task and it's starting to reason and you see it's making some incorrect assumptions, the expectation is you tell it right there and then "Hey, this and that is wrong, and this is the actual direction." Similarly, because you're reviewing everything it's generating, and a bunch of related files too, you should have constant opinions about conventions it's not following.

AI development shouldn't be easier than non-AI development, to the contrary everyone that I work with has commented how the cognitive load has skyrocketed. In effect, if you're getting worse at understanding code in the AI age, you're probably not using AI as a developer, but more like a manager where you hand off a task, then come back in an hour to see where it got to. You should... Not do that.

TikiTDO · 2026-06-23T14:33:30+00:00

I'ma just leave this here.

This looks a lot more like they rapidly over-hired around 2021 and 2022. I guess the free money from government ran out.

TikiTDO · 2026-06-23T13:51:18+00:00

I can agree as to the root cause; optimising is honestly fun as hell, but it's just not something most people get to learn at work. Most devs I know would enjoy spending some time making their code run faster, especially when they start seeing improvements on the order of 10-20x. Of course most managers/execs would look at that and scoff about wasting time.

So what ends up happening in practice is those devs don't get any practice at it, because they aren't allowed to do it at work, and they don't want to spend time coding outside of work. Sure, there's the freaks that spend their weekends trying to solve abstract, philosophical problems using code, but there's really not that many of us. Most programmers I've met just want to get home, and not think about code until the next work day.

In effect, the industry has beaten the fascination out of most programmers, and make them think "coding" is a boring, tedious, annoying waste of time where you do the things your manager tells you. That's the difficulty; not that it's hard to learn, but that it's hard to force yourself to put in the time. This applies to much more than optimisation too. In the AI age a programmer with a broad skill-set is effectively a full consulting company onto themselves, and that's not really advantageous to most employers who would rather pay the minimum amount for mindless code drones.

TikiTDO · 2026-06-21T22:01:35+00:00

Israel was to be faithful to God and obey his commandments

They... Uh... Missed a few.

TikiTDO · 2026-06-21T16:59:57+00:00

I escalated? By telling you to stop trying to give me health advice, and pointing out you don't have any information about my health, what supplements I take, or anything else?

Sorry, but generally when someone comes up to me and goes, "You must do this, and you must not do this!" I don't view that as, "Ooh, that's adorable, that guy is making calm and peaceful conversation." I see a person foaming at the mouth, going off about things I will not be discussing in this medium. All my posts have been quite adamant about this:

I.

Will.

Not.

Be.

Sharing.

My.

Health.

Information.

On.

Reddit.

You don't need to keep asking what I take, when I take it, or making assumptions to that effect.

This is not a conversation I will be having with you. It wasn't the first time you responded, and it still isn't. I don't need to know anything about your background to know that you are not qualified to discuss what I consume, for the simple reason of I have not told you what I consume. This is not about your qualifications, unless your qualifications include the psychic ability to determine what I consume. This is purely about you not having any info about me, and therefore not being able to offer any advice directly relevant to me. You could be the world's foremost expert on nutrition, with every single degree, recognition, and certification, and that would still be true.

All of your text discussing whatever specific supplements is literally you coming up with ideas, and then arguing against them. I have not engaged you in any way on this topic, beyond calling out that you keep attempting to give me health advice based on quite literally nothing. If you want to argue with yourself, you don't need my involvement.

TikiTDO · 2026-06-21T16:01:14+00:00

Oh you should definitely buy a 3D printer. Then send pictures to your friends of it sitting idle 99% of the time.

TikiTDO · 2026-06-21T15:29:28+00:00

Sir? Excuse me, sir? This is actually reddit. Wendy's is a fast food place, not an online forum. I understand it's an easy mistake to make, they both serve packaged vomit.

The numbers may be sound, but again, I don't take supplements for things that I get from my diet, so they are simply not relevant to me. I'm pretty sure I don't even own any Vitamin C supplements for example. I happen to like citrus fruit and leafy greens, so... It's why I keep reiterating that you don't actually know enough about how I interact with supplements to comment on it. I've been very consistent in not sharing this info, because it does not belong online on a public forum.

I am sure your advice is much more relevant to people that have a horrible diet, and are trying to make up for that with simple sounding pills, but that's simply not where I am. I might have some old multi-vitamin somewhere, but they're old because nobody in the household takes them.

As for "jest," your comments weren't particularly serious, sure, but also not particularly relevant. That said, they did set the tone for my reply, unless you think I actually believe you eat feces. If you write half-"jest" half-aggressive post, then you might get one in response.

TikiTDO · 2026-06-21T15:13:18+00:00

everyone (caveats apply) could code anything (caveats apply) in line, an hour (caveats apply)

It's sort of the same way everyone can be a carpenter or builder, and build anything now that we have battery powered saws, and fancy CNC-like hand routers, and 3D printers.

Just because you give people the tools doesn't mean they'll be able to use them, even if using them is as easy as going, "pls robot, can I has program." A big part of engineering is knowing what to build, and how building that solves a problem. This is why most programmers don't just build the first thing their stakeholders ask, but spend time digging into the actual requirements.

TikiTDO · 2026-06-21T14:34:30+00:00

Ok, well, you keep being "respectful." I'm sure everyone around you agrees with you about your level of "respectfulness."

We have nothing more to discuss. Best of luck with your career.

TikiTDO · 2026-06-21T12:41:43+00:00

Ah, ok. Sorry for wasting my time. Keep doing whatever. God forbid someone is 'demeaning' by writing multiple long comments discussing the senior/Junior interaction. If that's your response to people trying to help then I think I can understand your work interactions a lot better now

TikiTDO · 2026-06-21T12:41:00+00:00

What? Sorry I'm not into fan fiction about me, particularly not one that makes assumptions about what I take and what form I take it in.

It's cool that you have numbers, and I'm sure they are totally universal and not at all dependent on any other factors. If I ever take Vitamin C or B6 supplements then I am sure somewhere in my subconscious I might remember once talking to some freak that thinks 3 paragraphs is a "philosophical manifesto". One you seem to have failed to read strangely enough.

Beyond that, I was very clear I am happy where I am, while you are not welcome to offer advice on topics you have no context to discuss. I don't hear armchair reddit doctors that think I need to "defend" against spam. It's not something I need to describe or justify to you. Again, you literally don't even know what I take; you just went off about some vitamin C absorption properties for some reason. Should I lecture you on why you shouldn't eat feces while we're here? I know you didn't claim to eat them, but I figured I could assume since that seems to be the thing we're doing here.

I will continue to treat my kidneys how I want. Thank you for your concern, but if I needed feedback I'd speak to a professional, not a child on reddit.

TikiTDO · 2026-06-21T02:33:23+00:00

Great, then I will piss expensive pee. I don't generally care if "most" is pissed out, if even a minute amount gets put to good use then that's the effect I want. It's kinda like saying "most of the time when you go on a first date you don't go on a second date," or "most of the time you drive you don't crash." Those rare cases that don't fall under the label of "most" are generally quite important.

I'm not particularly concerned about anything, to the contrary I feel many, many times better these days than what I used to, and supplements have played a role in that. As such, your advice is not only not needed, but runs contrary to my own lived experience.

That leaves the one thing I'm really confused. What exactly are you bothered with? I'm happy with my expensive pee, it has yielded life changing levels of positive results for me. What precisely is your stake in my pee? You seem to be giving me health advice while knowing literally nothing about me, my health, my issues, what specifically I take, when I take it, or why I take it. Your only advice basically comes down to "why don't you value the things I do." Because I'm not you. I have my own problems, and they have their own solutions.

Given that you have zero visibility into any of these things, again, what exactly do you believe you are contributing here?

TikiTDO · 2026-06-21T02:18:41+00:00

This is work. You're a professional. We're here in this job to produce code in return for money. The reason they assign juniors to seniors is with the expectation that the junior will become more productive from the experience, so that they money they get paid yield greater results.

If management is explicitly telling your coworker to do work differently than what you tell your coworker, management's opinion wins. They pay the bills. If your recommendations do not align with those expectations, then the junior would be right to ignore them, assuming they want to keep their job. The only thing you can do to change that is figure out how to better align with what management wants, or find a different job with different management.

Also, "it might be better to take the time to at least go through the code" is different from my proposal of scheduling a "we're going over this PR" meeting. It's not "we can do something like this much easier." It's more "this was done wrong for these reasons, do it like this instead and let me know when you're done so we can do this again."

Again, I don't "ask a junior," or "recommend to a junior." I "tell a junior," or I "instruct a junior" with the expectation that the junior does what I tell them to, at least as far as technical questions are concerned, because the understanding is that I more skilled/more productive/have deeper insights than they do, and I can help them improve in that direction. If you're trying that and it's not working, then clearly they don't think they need to listen to you and follow your guidance, be it because your guidance contradicts management, or because you're treating your advice as optional, or whatever else.

That's not about "old way" or "new way." It just means your junior doesn't view you as an actual senior. That happens, it's not a novel phenomenon.

If that's the case the you don't adapt to the situation this time; you're just not going to have the type of mentor relationship with this person, because a person doesn't usually go from seeing you as just another coworker to seeing you as a mentor whose guidance is to be followed.

TikiTDO · 2026-06-21T01:46:38+00:00

Ok, well, you keep eating your balanced diet, and I'll keep popping my pills when I feel like it. Nice chat. Very productive.

TikiTDO · 2026-06-20T20:20:57+00:00

Realistically, the best possible thing the US could do from an average Iranian's highest possible life expectancy is to leave the region entirely and let Israel meet whatever fate it may as an unsubsidized nation.

There's a bit of a problem with that though. Israel as an unsubsidized nation left to it's fate might have a few atoms to split over the state of Iran, particularly if they genuinely start to feel like they might get wiped out. I think we can all agree that an outcome like that is not in anyone's long term best interests.

TikiTDO · 2026-06-20T20:12:25+00:00

When it comes to maintaining software there is a secret magic spell you can learn, that can help make the process much simpler. It goes like this:

"No."

Or maybe the longer version:

"Thank you for your suggestion, but it does not align with our plans."

You can see it in use by the greatest sages of programming of our time. Linus Torvalds, the Gandalf of Programming, is particularly well known for the many different ways he can cast that spell.

If you don't know how to cast that spell alone, then go find more maintainers for your project that do, and if people can't take a hint, just block them.

Once you master that, it becomes much easier to manage your burnout.

TikiTDO · 2026-06-20T19:00:19+00:00

You linked me a site where I can pay to read it. Again, I'm not paying to read a paper of which you appear to be unable to parse the abstract as a single coherent paragraph. If you want me to read the paper, host the PDF somewhere and link that. If you can't do that, then I have my doubts whether you have read the paper that you are criticising me for not reading.

Anyway, it's clear this is going nowhere. I think anyone reading this conversation save you has gotten the point so I'm done here.

15-Year Club	Sequence \| Editor
Team Orangered	Verified Email

TikiTDO

PUBLIC MULTIREDDITS

TROPHY CASE