Ai: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Rotorburn.....

Asininedrivel said:
...kids these days are really going to struggle given seemingly every entry level job is getting kneecapped by AI.
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I keep seeing this everywhere. But everyone I talk to (across a bunch of different trades/farming/etc...) are desperate for even half-decent staff. And good (potential) apprentices are desperately being sought. Like it's always been - good attitude, good attendance, and taking interest are invaluable for a young person's progression, but there's very rapid career advancement possible for people that are willing to work and who are paying attention. Yeah, the wages suck for the first couple of years - but then they surpass most generic office jobs pretty quickly. Even trade-adjacent roles (sales, service, invoicing, spare parts, etc...) are desperately seeking staff with even just basic competence/literacy.
 
beeb said:
good attitude, good attendance, and taking interest are invaluable for a young person's progression,
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Totally agree with this, but I'm not sure that a majority of younger people out there have these essential traits? I know a young guy through online gaming that finished up an IT Security degree and was offered an internship without pay. He said "FUCK THAT! No way I'm working without being paid!". Last I checked in with him he failed to find a job in IT Security and he's been working at a call centre selling life insurance.
 
Justin Fox said:
Totally agree with this, but I'm not sure that a majority of younger people out there have these essential traits? I know a young guy through online gaming that finished up an IT Security degree and was offered an internship without pay. He said "FUCK THAT! No way I'm working without being paid!". Last I checked in with him he failed to find a job in IT Security and he's been working at a call centre selling life insurance.
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I don't think any of us know enough young people to have a representative sample group we can generalise with.

How many generations have been doing the whole "kids these days..." bit now? Probably a couple of thousand. The Millennials can't have been too stupid, they got AI across the line!
 
Justin Fox said:
Totally agree with this, but I'm not sure that a majority of younger people out there have these essential traits? I know a young guy through online gaming that finished up an IT Security degree and was offered an internship without pay. He said "FUCK THAT! No way I'm working without being paid!". Last I checked in with him he failed to find a job in IT Security and he's been working at a call centre selling life insurance.
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I reckon internships without pay are bullshit to be honest, often seems like a way for dodgy pricks to take on youths to do low-level admin work then dump them when they ask to actually get paid. I get it if it's for a fortnight or something, but beyond that pay people for their work - even if it's just a stipend until they upskill.

johnny said:
I don't think any of us know enough young people to have a representative sample group we can generalise with.

How many generations have been doing the whole "kids these days..." bit now? Probably a couple of thousand. The Millennials can't have been too stupid, they got AI across the line!
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I agree in principle - though we meet quite a few youngens through work (we offer some school-based work programs, work experience, etc...). Some are keen to work but would be a terrible fit for the role they're trying, most show no real interest other than being happy not to be at school for the day/week, and once in a blue moon you get one that's actually interested and a good fit. We've had one young fella doing a day a week for the last couple of months. About 5 or 6 different staff here (out of a staff of about 30, and across a range of jobroles) went and saw the branch manager and told him we need to hire this kid - even if there's not official apprentice intake until next year and we already have enough apprentices. But someone just doing the basics and paying attention feels liek a generational talent nowadays so we're trying to get him before someone else does. It's wild.
 
TBH, I'd be happy with staff that know the actual measurable difference between metric and imperial fasteners (i.e More than just "they are different thread pitches)...
 
I'm not sure if technology is to blame, but I just feel that a lot of the 20-somethings I meet/or know are quite lazy, or fail to take initiative? Something... I'm not sure.

Example: My young cousin (who I love to bits) was looking for a mountain bike so over the span of 2 weeks I sent him links to good buys on Facebook Marketplace (I was searching multiple times a day for the right bike within his budget) and told him to reach out to each one of the sellers and we can go look at the bike/s together.

2 weeks on he lets me know that not a single person has replied to him and he attached a screen grab of him reaching out to a seller with "Hi, is this still available?".

I almost died in my seat. I mean seriously... lol!
 
As a planner it’s definitely coming into our field of work and those who’ve seen LTIH over the last couple of months would’ve seen me being impacted by AI, in a roundabout way. My colleagues have been more impacted by it with some losing their jobs or have been demoted from a senior role down to the roles that made two people redundant, but now the business is saying that they can do those two roles with the use of an AI based planning tool. They had their first role out this week in one side of the business and ours will be towards the end of September, which will be interesting.

My role is not in scope of the AI project as my planning is more of an internal supplier, with too many variables for it to be cost efficient to be included and I’ve been told that it’s not planned to be done.
 
beeb said:
Some are keen to work but would be a terrible fit for the role they're trying, most show no real interest other than being happy not to be at school for the day/week,
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That sounds like me and all the people I went to school with 40 years ago. Not sure that's a change from the status quo.

We get new grads in each year from uni and almost all of them are bright as fuck and keen to hook in. I can only think of one of them out of hundreds that was not. About 10 years ago I ran 48 interns through our org each year. I can only think of one of them over 18 months that wasn't smart and motivated.

Of course there are dullards and lazy can'ts out there, but that's the same with every generation since day dot. Guaranteed the generation before you were saying the same thing. It's like a rite of passage into your late 40s - saying the following generation has lost it (which is really just implicitly blowing smoke up your own arse!).
 
johnny said:
That sounds like me and all the people I went to school with 40 years ago. Not sure that's a change from the status quo.

We get new grads in each year from uni and almost all of them are bright as fuck and keen to hook in. I can only think of one of them out of hundreds that was not. About 10 years ago I ran 48 interns through our org each year. I can only think of one of them over 18 months that wasn't smart and motivated.

Of course there are dullards and lazy can'ts out there, but that's the same with every generation since day dot. Guaranteed the generation before you were saying the same thing. It's like a rite of passage into your late 40s - saying the following generation has lost it (which is really just implicitly blowing smoke up your own arse!).
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Absolutely agree on the generational perception stuff. What I was describing (or at least trying to) was just context/rolling my eyes at the "there's no jobs!" crowd - because most young folk won't even consider doing a trade, even though a lot of them would really enjoy it if they gave it a shot.
 
johnny said:
Of course there are dullards and lazy can'ts out there, but that's the same with every generation since day dot. Guaranteed the generation before you were saying the same thing. It's like a rite of passage into your late 40s - saying the following generation has lost it (which is really just implicitly blowing smoke up your own arse!).
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you find out pretty fast who will do the basics and who will dig in and figure out how things work to achieve what needs to be done. Still plenty of space in IT support for junior roles, especially in smaller companies. Often there isnt space to move up though, mid and senior people dont leave in those size of places.

This isnt anything new. Maybe the biggest change is that having a degree is the very basic starting point now, it used to be a pretty good way into a decent job.
 
Also AI

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As an old man I get the feeling a lot of young people have lost their hope in a better future. We were lucky in that the whole work hard, get ahead was still achievable to a degree. Now kids are watching their parents struggle to make it work and think why bother trying. Work hard, don't work hard - still a shit sandwich. We are a lucky group with some disposable cash for unnecessary leisure activities. I see this at my daughters school where they sell icy poles for a $1 each on a Wednesday and not all kids can line up for a treat.
 
slowmick said:
As an old man I get the feeling a lot of young people have lost their hope in a better future. We were lucky in that the whole work hard, get ahead was still achievable to a degree. Now kids are watching their parents struggle to make it work and think why bother trying. Work hard, don't work hard - still a shit sandwich. We are a lucky group with some disposable cash for unnecessary leisure activities. I see this at my daughters school where they sell icy poles for a $1 each on a Wednesday and not all kids can line up for a treat.
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This is deep AF.

I've had a few friends in their 30's say that they will never own a house, so yup, they just spend all their money on lifestyle. YOLO, basically.

Can't speak for everyone, but my parents always pushed me to invest in property. I got my first home loan at 21 and worked my ass off to pay the mortgage for most of my life (some years I actually failed to make enough to pay off the mortgage and had to borrow money). Of-course I had hobbies too, but all of that was on the credit card lol.

I only just sold my house 2 years ago, so all of that hard work has paid off and I can now buy nice bicycles.

PS: I did once attend a "make a million dollars in one year" seminar. Interesting angle; Do you want to own a Lamborghini? Do you think those people with helicopters on boats bought them outright? The seminar basically suggested that "the man who dies with the most debt wins". IE: You can have that lifestyle if you get everything on loans, when you die you have insurance that sorts it all out so your partner/family don't have to deal with the debt. Kinda like "fake it till you make it" but you never actually ever make it.
 
Justin Fox said:
This is deep AF.
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Sorry about that. Didn't mean to be a bummer.
Just seeing a move towards concentrating on today rather than a better tomorrow. My brother in law works in the mines in Queensland. Both his kids are electrical apprentices. They can't keep apprentices even while paying huge money as kids can't see the point in hard work today for a better tomorrow when they can have a cruisy today and probably a cruisy tomorrow. Work just enough to have an easy life.
 
288MW data centre...
276 backup diesel generators, at 1MW each?
In zombie apocalypse, you'll where to find a decent genny and fuel :)

www.abc.net.au

Firmus AI data centre gets tick from planners ahead of council vote

Council planners have recommended that councillors approve a proposed 288-megawatt AI data centre at the site of the former Gunns Pulp Mill.
www.abc.net.au www.abc.net.au

1MW = 2709L of diesel/hr, 9675L per day.

276 of the fuckers = 2.67 MILLION Litres of diesel per day to power stupid google searches and AI gen videos.... jeebuz

25m B-double = 68kL, so 39 B-double truck loads of diesel per day.....

Is there any way to turn off the forced google AI search results, to stop unnecessary use? Or just use different search?
 
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oldcorollas said:
288MW data centre...
276 backup diesel generators, at 1MW each?
In zombie apocalypse, you'll where to find a decent genny and fuel :)

www.abc.net.au

Firmus AI data centre gets tick from planners ahead of council vote

Council planners have recommended that councillors approve a proposed 288-megawatt AI data centre at the site of the former Gunns Pulp Mill.
www.abc.net.au www.abc.net.au

1MW = 2709L of diesel/hr, 9675L per day.

276 of the fuckers = 2.67 MILLION Litres of diesel per day to power stupid google searches and AI gen videos.... jeebuz

25m B-double = 68kL, so 39 B-double truck loads of diesel per day.....

Is there any way to turn off the forced google AI search results, to stop unnecessary use? Or just use different search?
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10,000L per day? Are those their quoted numbers? We used a 1MVA genny for a year on a construction project and it was a few hundred l/day.
 
tubby74 said:
you find out pretty fast who will do the basics and who will dig in and figure out how things work to achieve what needs to be done. Still plenty of space in IT support for junior roles, especially in smaller companies. Often there isnt space to move up though, mid and senior people dont leave in those size of places.

This isnt anything new. Maybe the biggest change is that having a degree is the very basic starting point now, it used to be a pretty good way into a decent job.
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We have a newish grad in our team that I work alongside. She is eager and killing it. I've already asked her nicely to hire me one day when she runs it all.

I can understand the apprehension about AI and IT stuff has always had some doom and gloom on the horizon that will automate away everything. Work as described to an extent but always creates new and interesting problems.

The human element always enters the chat. Even 'if' the tech could do it flawlessly then the wacky indecision of us monkey descendants who are generally great at dreaming up some way to make things a bit harder or obscure.
 
Dales Cannon said:
10,000L per day? Are those their quoted numbers? We used a 1MVA genny for a year on a construction project and it was a few hundred l/day.
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no, from one of the (linked) various sites with same numbers for 1MW running full load constantly.

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their planning docs don't say what kind, but do say 206 maximum running simultaneously.. mayeb they aren't 1MW each?
1787305186543.png
can't find images of the generators to confirm size/type
 
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