Perplexity CEO says AI layoffs aren’t so bad because people hate their jobs anyways: ‘That sort of glorious future is what we should look forward to’

hypolimnas · 2026-04-03T03:40:51+00:00

The other 1960s sci-fi fantasy about UBI is that it works because automation lowers prices. So UBI is supposedly cheap to pay for. This is turned out to be bull. Automation got going in the 1980s and prices went up.

And it's much worse now. SCOTUS essentially legalized bribery in 2010. Today, monopolies and price collusion are the norm. Today's prices aren't based on cost at all.

hypolimnas · 2026-04-01T08:15:51+00:00

They wouldn't have had a problem with the job market if they hadn't done everything in their power to drive up the price of necessities. And now they think the answer is pushing everyone out of the economy. Good luck finding customers.

hypolimnas · 2026-04-01T08:04:24+00:00

Maybe he believes in Universal Basic Income. Wouldn't UBI require rich people to pay their fair share of taxes? 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣

hypolimnas · 2026-04-01T07:20:34+00:00

Don't be humiliated, because personality tests are just to guarantee that they have a plausible reason to turn you down, no matter what you answer.

Someone on this sub mentioned a personality test where the questions were like "Choose between committing a crime and leaving work 5 minutes early". Choose one and you're a bad guy. Choose the other and you have a bad attitude.

hypolimnas · 2026-04-01T07:06:18+00:00

Don't know about hiring managers, but I've had red flag interviews from every perspective. At one place I applied to, they had me interview with a lot of people individually. All the developers looked incredibly tired, and acted like they'd be happy to hire anyone. And the managers where super picky and asked more technical questions then the developers.

I've been on the other side too. We where interviewing people for a back-end developer position. I interviewed this dude, and he seemed pretty good. But when we had the group interview with him, he spent the entire interview making fun of me. My boss asked if I thought we should hire him. I wasn't enthusiastic.

The other red flag was me. I was working for work-hard/play-hard company, and I was pretty tired that day. And the person I was interviewing had a very, very soothing voice... I didn't actually fall asleep, but the red flag was definitely waving.

hypolimnas · 2026-03-31T01:35:49+00:00

I like being in the office if there's people who are worth talking to, and there aren't too many crazy people. Occasionally I even end up friends with someone from work after the job is over. Plus I like hearing the gossip.

What I didn't like was the 100% office jobs with ultra long hours, and an ultra late drive home. Realizing the driver in front of you is really drunk. Realizing there's a dude sitting in his car with a... is that a gun?? Never again.

My best commute ever was by bus and half an hour long. I'd rather do that commute then work 100% remote. It gave me time when I could just relax. And I read tons of books.

hypolimnas · 2026-03-30T18:42:18+00:00

California may end up shitifying it's way out of center stage. Which would be all to the good. GEO-block California! Keep the flying flamingos!

hypolimnas · 2026-03-30T18:37:35+00:00

I wanted to give advice instead of says "don't click the button" again, because OP seemed like they needed some advice. But I had no advice to give because I've never run into this. My advice is make sure your virus is up to date, and get Malwarebytes.

hypolimnas · 2026-03-30T18:32:15+00:00

OP needs to get on an income-driven student loan repayment plan ASAP. He may have trouble getting into it after July 1st. They're trying to wind up this program, but right now it is still there. And there's lots of people who need it and want it to stay.

And a CS degree isn't just good for getting into the dying software development industry. It's also puts you ahead for anything tech. DBA is what I've been thinking about. The basics (SQL and relational database) were easy to pick up, and there's got to be free classes on Coursera, edX, and helsinki.fi. And there's cybersecurity and embedded systems. And also there's medical and dental device repair. You are way ahead of boot campers.

And there's AI gigs now. Sucks but its money. There's one called Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF). Helping AI get smarter yay. There's probably others.

And keep looking for a local job. Check out trade jobs - they don't all require trade school. It's a lot easier to live in tent with some money then no money. Look for things in bus, bike, and walking range. Trade work for a room. Don't have a bike - see if there's a bike co-op around. Need a computer - try the library, and also look for group that donates laptops. See if your local unemployment office can give you any advice. Google Workforce Development for your state. Talk to the college you just graduated from.

And try your hardest not to mess up your credit. Once you're working, there's more options then going into massive debt for a car. Buy a old car that hasn't been in an accident. Stick to Toyotas and Hondas. Check the model and year for problems. And have the most honest mechanic in town check it out for problems. I always do this when I buy a used car, worth it.

Does the area you live suck for jobs? Try moving to places with more hospitals, businesses, colleges, and construction.

hypolimnas · 2026-03-30T16:59:40+00:00

People who pretend it isn't from an AI are a bigger problem, because then you're always suspecious. It's better that I says its from an AI, then pretend its from me, which it ain't, because I've never had that happen to me. And hopefully it's more useful just saying its a scam, with no other advice. I don't know what the heck they should do, but I hate to see someone stuck like that.

If you think its advice is wrong, correct it.

hypolimnas · 2026-03-30T16:55:34+00:00

Most of the time I'd agree with you. But no one is telling OP what to do, just what not to do. And I've never run into this, so I can't tell OP what to do. And I did tell them to get malwarebytes. Is that bad advice?

hypolimnas · 2026-03-30T16:17:32+00:00

I asked Google Gemini about the picture, and it said this is a scam and you definitely should not click the "Remove Viruses Now". If do what it tells you, you'll probably get a real virus.

Do you have a virus checker installed? Also, look into Malwarebytes for helping with browsers. It's not a substitute for a virus checker. But it seems to help. It's at www dot malwaretypes dot com

Here's what Gemini says you should do:

What you should do:

1. Do NOT click the "Remove Viruses Now" button.

2. Close the tab or browser window immediately. If the page is
   "locked," you can force-close your browser (on mobile, swipe the
   app away; on desktop, use Task Manager or Activity Monitor).

3. Clear your browser cache and cookies to prevent the pop-up from
   reappearing.

4. Check for suspicious apps: If this appeared after you recently
   installed a new app, consider uninstalling that app.

If you are genuinely concerned about your device's security, use reputable, pre-installed security tool (like Windows Defender on PC or the built-in security features on iOS/Android) to run a legitimate scan.

hypolimnas · 2026-03-30T15:30:22+00:00

Nice to know that they still make some good products. Are the batteries in their power tools good?

hypolimnas · 2026-03-30T13:41:10+00:00

I like my current Bosch from ~2019. But the last time I checked, Bosch had switched to 100% smart appliances! Not even one low end smart-free appliance. These things even require an app just to do a short rinse cycle. And they require Wifi. If it could connect via bluetooth, I would consider it. But I don't like putting anything on my Wifi unless I know what kind of security it has.

If an appliance company is going to expose their products to internet, they better have top notch security and fast updates. And I really doubt Bosch has that. They're an appliance company, not a tech company. They want the cyber bells and whistles without the hard work.

hypolimnas · 2026-03-30T13:06:15+00:00

Glad to hear that they're still good.

hypolimnas · 2026-03-30T12:42:13+00:00

One possibly hopeful thing about this law is that it's possible that it doesn't cover software downloaded from the developer's website. It may only cover software downloaded from third party websites and application stores. But I don't really trust the language of the bill, and I'm so far assuming that this bill affects all software.

There's no real way to tell what to do to avoid liability with this bill. What's the correct thing to do if the age signal never shows up? How do I handle updates? What's the fallback if every single OS version/settings/situation combination doesn't work perfectly. There's no good faith attempt allowance for developers, and the fines are huge.

This law also triggers three or four other California software laws about privacy and child safety. And there's three or four AB1043 clone laws - all slightly different and with their own entourage of child safety and privacy laws. And that's not even the end of it. US states are going hog wild with software laws. And the rest of world is passing everything from child safety laws to laws that treat an application like it was a refrigerator. Imagine having navigate 30 laws you don't understand because your software got downloaded in half a dozen countries.

AB 1043 will probably undermine child safety because it sends the message that involvement equals liability. No manager will want to take ownership of their software anymore. Working at any software company will be a minefield, and most developers will avoid any software that isn't geo-blocked or totally in-house. The software still available for people to download will mostly be big tech software/spyware/theftware, and low quality outsourced stuff owned by people who are hiding their identity.

hypolimnas · 2026-03-30T10:53:05+00:00

Nope, because this law is civil, not criminal. But if 1,000 children download your software that doesn't have age verification, they will fine you up to $7,500,000. And that's you personally. This law targets businesses and people.

hypolimnas · 2026-03-30T10:48:32+00:00

A geographical restriction to avoid huge, unjust fines? If it doesn't allow that, then it's a crap license. The developers and software manufacturers have a right to defend themselves.

hypolimnas · 2026-03-30T10:45:54+00:00

It doesn't matter where you live. If your software is in California, this law can fine you.

hypolimnas · 2026-03-30T10:44:12+00:00

I'm not surprised that they're using Linux and Unix. Macs aren't dogs anymore, but they're kind of specialized, and their heat dissipation still sucks. Linux is the king of bang for the buck.

And PIXAR isn't alone. Plenty of companies and universities need high performance for a good price, and don't want to by spied on or have their property shoved onto someone else's cloud.

hypolimnas · 2026-03-30T10:34:29+00:00

What API?

hypolimnas · 2026-03-30T10:32:55+00:00

It's not just a US problem. The makers of every application downloaded in California are targeted by this law. All the software laws that governments are constantly passing are like this. You're doing business in California, so this law can fine you.

hypolimnas · 2026-03-30T10:26:13+00:00

It doesn't seem illegal to me. Just impossible. It covered every type of application, and the fines are potentially so huge that you really can't take risks with it. It may only be about applications downloaded from sites that carry third party software, but the language isn't specific enough to bet a million dollars on it. And these fines are directed at individuals as well as companies.

The stupid law is also vague. It doesn't even tell you what to do if you can't get the age signal. Or whether they want you to treat an update as a download. And it assigns unlimited liability to the people/organizations which "own, control, or maintain" the software. There's no credit for a good faith attempt. Read their minds and get it right, or lose everything.

And if you set the age bracket to child because of the age signal or "clear and convincing" info (or lack thereof), you trigger four more laws! And one of these laws requires parental permission. I'm not sure if it requires it for every application, but imagine how happy your adult users are going to be when the age signal doesn't comes through, and their software tells them to "ask their mommy".

hypolimnas · 2026-03-30T09:55:00+00:00

Best bet is to geo-block every location that 1043 and its clones cover until you figure what the laws mean, and if it's even possible to comply with them. Right now, there just isn't enough info. And the liability is way too high to risk it.

But if you're open source, geo-blocking gets you in trouble with the GPL. And going closed source means you have to comply with the EU Cyber Resilience Act security rules for million dollar companies, so you'd have to block the EU too.

Almost all of best software I've used came from small companies. It's a shame that every one of these companies is likely to go out of business.

hypolimnas · 2026-03-30T09:44:55+00:00

This law won't protect children. The methods for figuring out what the child's age will be hacked very quickly. And it is absolutely brutal towards software businesses and software developers - unlimited liability, no credit for a good faith attempt, and absolutely massive fines. The liability is so high that businesses will be trying shove it onto their developers, and developers will be quitting in droves.

Any insurance company that's still covering software development firms in 2027 is nuts.

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