You never learned to delegate. AI just made it obvious

(jeroensangers.com)

2 points | by speckx 5 hours ago ago

5 comments

  • bluGill 5 hours ago ago

    The point of delegating is I can trust you to do the job with the instructions given. If I need more detailed instructions that lowers the value of delegation - eventually I can do the job myself faster. Sometimes I will spend extra time to teach someone how to do a job even though I could do it faster - but I expect that they will do this (or a similar) job again in the future without instruction.

    Employees that I can give minimal instructions to and get good results are more valuable that those who need details instructions.

    None of the above has anything to do with my ability to delegate. Sometimes it has something to with my ability to tell the skill of the person I delegate to.

    • cratermoon 5 hours ago ago

      "The point of delegating is I can trust you to do the job with the instructions given"

      Which is weird because AI doesn't meet that requirement.

      • bluGill 5 hours ago ago

        No human is perfect for that either. However some are more trustworthy than others. I need to watch AI closer, but no closer than any other junior engineer. And AI doesn't get lazy trying to trace down complex code so sometimes it is worth it.

        • cratermoon 2 hours ago ago

          I'm not sure I understand how "I need to watch AI closer" squares with "If I need more detailed instructions that lowers the value of delegation - eventually I can do the job myself faster.", unless you mean to say that AI is not worth delegating to.

          • bluGill 24 minutes ago ago

            That depends very much on what work you assign. There is some work not worth assigning to AI because you can't figure out how to teach them to do it (if/once you do that will change). There is some work you can assign to AI because you can teach them to do it well enough with the requirements you feel like writing.