Scissors, Glue, and AI · Hunter Software Consulting<br>So, there’s a story I frequently tell about my first “real” job. I’ve thought about a pithy title for this, including something like “Efficiency is a Lie” or something otherwise provocative, but I’m not sure I believe that enough to use it. That said, I’d like you to keep AI in mind as I tell this story. I’ll return to it at the end, but I hope you see the through-line.<br>The Story
Link to heading<br>Before My Time
Link to heading<br>Once upon a time, in an office far, far away, there was a salaryman. This salaryman had one real duty, which took him a solid 8 hours to complete. As a salaryman, he wasn’t allowed overtime, but he was also squarely instructed to keep his butt in his seat for 8 hours a day.<br>He quickly found that 8 hours of work turned into 7, into 6, into less. However, to placate the Powers That Be, butts had to remain in seats. As such, he searched for an activity to do. There was a computer, and the salaryman had access to it. On this computer was Solitaire, and from this computer Solitaire could not be removed, for computer modifications were banned by the Powers That Be.<br>So Solitaire consumed the remaining time. First one game, then two. Then one hour, then two. No rules prevented this, so the Powers That Be were placated, even as others in the office gave the stink eye.<br>The decades rolled by. No promotions came, but neither did PIPs. The salaryman grew in efficiency, and the Solitaire time grew as well, to over 7 hours a day. Eventually the salaryman retired, and a job was left vacant.<br>So I Enter The Scene
Link to heading<br>In rolls a bright eyed, bushy tailed me (I know, indistinguishable from the current me). I’m hired by this office, and given one primary duty:<br>Take one newspaper from each of GA, NC, SC, AL, VA<br>Take scissors, and cut any articles related to a select topic out of said newspaper<br>Take a gluestick, and paste the articles into a spital notebook<br>At the end of the day, fax the articles to the head office<br>That’s it. Oh, and if the spiral notebook fills, get a new one.<br>I got to work! Tons of arts and crafts, scissoring, gluing, and faxing. But one problem kept arising - arts and crafts for 8 hours a day really hurt my hands!<br>So I Start Making Some Changes
Link to heading<br>So at this point, my hands really hurt. Meanwhile, I’m a bright eyed, bushy tailed Millenial, and there’s a computer with my account on it. I’m not technical at this point, but I do know how to use a computer. As proscripted by The Powers That Be, I must not make any modifications to the computer. But lucky for me, there’s some basic business software installed by default! Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and most importantly Microsoft SQL.<br>So at this point I go: “Hmmm. Pasting articles into a spiral notebook. Sharing that notebook via fax. Sounds a lot like a database to me?,” and promptly set up a database version of my spiral notebook. By this point, I’m getting a bit better at scissors and glue, so even with double duty I’m done in time. In fact, given that copy/paste from a newspaper’s website exists, I’m clearing 7 hours of crafts in about 20 minutes of excited Googling.<br>This gives me spare time to improve my system. What if you had tags by state? What if you had tags by topic? And so on.<br>So Things Accelerate
Link to heading<br>So at this point, my hands still hurt, but I see an off-ramp.<br>One day, I go to my boss (one of the Powers That Be), and say to him “Hey Boss! You mentioned to me the other day, how it would be great to see what’s happening by state. I built this nifty little tool here - I made these nice charts you can show to your boss!”. Of course, Boss wanted to make sure that No Rules Were Broken, but this was A OK! I was observant enough to realize that No Rules Were Broken was very very important.<br>Boss takes this to His Boss in the Head Office, and the Head Office is pleased as punch that he created this system. So pleased, that he got a promotion, large raise, and an abduction back to the Head Office, bringing in a New Boss.<br>New Boss (and other Powers That Be) promptly realize that while I’m non-technical, I’m significantly more technical than anyone else, including them. This helps them realize that with my help, they also might get a nice promotion and abduction to the Head Office. Meanwhile, the Head Office is busy rolling with the database I built, and it starts spreading as the new Way Things Are Done Around Here.<br>To my great satisfaction, scissors and glue are put down (almost permanently, they still want a fax from time to time for old times’ sake). To my great chagrin, my job duties explode rather aggressively. No opportunities for Solitaire are available to me. To my great excitement, most of these duties are at least technical adjacent.<br>The Rest Is History
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