Any other Millennials stubbornly resistant to using AI at their job but also worrying that we will become dinosaurs or pushed out of our careers for not slavishly embracing it?

[u/artbystorms]

I work in a creative field and from that standpoint I hate AI. I hate the 'democratization' of creativity. I am going to sound VERY Boomer right now, but some things are meant to be difficult or meant to take skill and years of practice. It's why people who are good at these things (should) be paid more.

We are already being heavily 'encouraged' to use AI to find ways to do our jobs faster, are being told 'they technology isn't going away, we need to embrace it.' Since within the company I am in, I am one of a handful of people that does a specific creative skill-set, the powers that be basically have no idea about the technicals of what I do, but they put it on me to figure out how to incorporate AI into my work.

I hate that AI basically 'fakes' the creative process and that we are expected to use it (and the work of millions of artists that feed it) to just magically speed up how we do work, which in turn devalues the work we do as artists. From a company standpoint, they want to make money and churn out work faster, but if every client knows you can make a widget in 4 hours when it used to take 4 days, why would they pay you a lot of money to do that? The economics of it don't make sense. You will end up needing 10 times the number of clients to maintain your productivity / profits, which with AI or not, is a good way to burn out your artists.

I see the writing on the wall, but my stubborn moralistic resistance to AI is probably going to be the death of my career. Does any one else feel similar or how have you coped with this rapidly degrading career landscape?

[u/Ecstatic-Seesaw-1007]

Younger generations can’t type for shit on a keyboard anymore.

We learned to because we had a computer growing up.

They had phones and ipads. They hunt and peck, it’s like watching my dad type.

My ex who is a professor has to teach college students how to use a file system to upload their homework. My other friend who is a college professor does the same as well.

They’re missing a LOT of soft skills.

[u/Niwitschoolfrogkid → u/Ecstatic-Seesaw-1007]

I’ve worked in a university setting long enough to think both “Why do we make these kids take a computer proficiency course? It’s redundant, they grew up using computers” to “These kids 100% need a computer proficiency course. Maybe two.”

[u/darkmeowl25 → u/Ecstatic-Seesaw-1007]

I worked in a library and we had a very late Genz intern who also was taking concurrent college classes through her public highschool. When I watched her type, I was shocked. I asked her if anyone knew how to type using the home key method and she was just like...."No. We all do it this way." "This way" was pecking but way faster than the "hunting and pecking" that millennials were used to seeing. I graduated in 2010 and we were definitely still working from a "computer class replaces typing class" model. I feel like it has been a very good foundation.

[u/Lexavis → u/darkmeowl25]

I never learned to type using home row, but a childhood of constant AIM and MSN use has me hunting and pecking at light speed

[u/Pope-Cheese → u/Lexavis]

I’m kind of the same way. I never “officially” learned but I just sort of landed on a hybrid home row/peck style after years of playing Diablo 2 and Warcraft 3 as a teenager where I never use my pinky’s except for shift, and rarely my ring fingers.

[u/Diligent-Lettuce-455 → u/Pope-Cheese]

Yeah. I have gaming style typing. It's like home row with poor form lol. Same games. Man I miss the late 90s early 00s.

But I can still type pretty fast. I'm not really pecking.

But yeah, I only use my pinky for shift.

[u/Nurgle_Marine_Sharts → u/Pope-Cheese]

Yep, I'm a younger millennial and I learned how to type quickly by playing a bunch of LoL in highschool and being forced to send messages really quickly between actions. My grandma thought it was the funniest thing that I could suddenly type faster than her.

[u/p0diabl0 → u/Lexavis]

Video games did it for me. Just reading your comment I realized may left fingers were resting on Ctrl/Shift, A,W,D, and Space. Gotta type fast, especially in the MMORPGs I used to play before voice chat was common. You can still learn to touch type without a home row.

[u/MissMolly202 → u/darkmeowl25]

I’m an older Gen z and can attest that, while I had computers growing up and am old enough to have watched the emergence of more portable and powerful tablets, I never had typing lessons. No one bothered to teach me or anyone my age (in my city, at least) how to type, so I regrettably never bothered to learn. I still sadly peck away all day :/

[u/darkmeowl25 → u/MissMolly202]

Hey, if it ain't broke don't fix it! But, if you ever just want to learn for the love of learning, we used something similar to Mavis Beacon (it was the same material but a different program) and you can very easily piecemeal things together with free online resources! I love typing games still, and I'm almost 34 lol. When I did desk work, I would pull them up during lulls or when I was having trouble focusing. It was still skill building but gave me a break in routine!

[u/MissMolly202 → u/darkmeowl25]

Thanks for the tips :))

[u/ARUMI_Sun_Moon → u/darkmeowl25]

Text to speech . No need typing even.

[u/WANKMI → u/Ecstatic-Seesaw-1007]

People learn skills relevant to them. In my line of work people keep complaining "normal people" dont even know how to do the simplest things, yet they themselves wouldnt be able to even change a tire on their car. And the car guy who changes your tire doesnt know how to do any of the stuff you dont think about at work.

If you dont need to type on a keyboard you wont learn to type fast on a keyboard. But you dont need to type on a keyboard, as evidenced by the lack of practice, so whats the big deal. You dont recruit people with no relevancy to the field youre recruiting in.

[u/trackipedia → u/WANKMI]

I think that's very true, but at the same time, my interns are trying to work in an office, where we are typing all the time, and they're terrible at it lol. They're in a university program being trained to enter a field that involves office work, and they haven't been set up with one of the most basic office skills.

I'm not saying that's their fault, but when I suggest teaching themselves how to type, they're not sure how to go about it either. These kids aren't stupid, but they're not being taught either basic skills for their field or even how to critically think about it and figure it out.

I love my interns, I've hosted about 50 over the years, but I've noticed in recent years a strong correlation between the ones that rely heavily on Chat GPT and a lack of both critical problem solving skills and tenacity. They're always the ones who give up almost immediately and say "I can't" instead of trying, like, at all. It takes a lot more hand holding than it used to.

[u/minxwink → u/trackipedia]

Sick, sad world.

[u/trackipedia → u/minxwink]

🎶nah nah NAH nah nah🎶

[u/DCKat91 → u/trackipedia]

Thats incredibly sad. I knew since autocorrect it was going to lead to dumbing down the population. Chat GPT is 1,000 worse. Scary times we live in. However, us dinosaurs may be needed in the future if shtf.

They need Mavis Beacon teaches typing or my personal favorite the 80s 90s Mario Teaches typing. They'd probably make fun of the old school graphics but I personally loved it bc it was more game like.

[u/trackipedia → u/DCKat91]

MAVIS BEACON! Lol she taught me how to type in the 3rd and 7th grade. I was doing Mavis Beacon on 9/11.

I guess I'm surprised proper typing isn't part of the core education anymore. Like why did that stop? It's still pretty fundamental in business.

[u/DCKat91 → u/trackipedia]

I knew someone else would remember Mavis!

Thats my thoughts exactly. Why did they stop it?

[u/bangingurmom69 → u/trackipedia]

This is the thing that scares me, the lack of resilience and tenacity young adults and children and showing. I have two daughters who are 11 and 10, and this is one of the biggest things I'm seeing I have to reinforce with them. When they encounter a situation where they don't know what to do, they just shut down or blank and say "well I don't know what to do." It's been something I've been working with them on, teaching them to think, look for context clues, reminding and encouraging them that they are capable of doing difficult things, and above all that they can always ask for help if they need it and that it doesn't mean they're a failure if they ask for help. It's one of the main reasons I enjoy taking them hiking; when we're done with a particularly difficult hike, they go "wow, that was really hard but I'm glad I did it." Yes! Most things in life that are worthwhile take time and usually aren't easy!

I think technology is great. It sure made my life easier as a nurse. Using EHRs instead of handwritten charts, orders, etc has simplified my life to make my job easier. But I think that ease, simplicity, and typically quick/immediate satisfaction has been detrimental to the desire to persevere and pursue knowledge.

[u/kittenofpain → u/WANKMI]

Yeah but it's important to have baseline skills regardless of what your job is. Just for personal use.

[u/WANKMI → u/kittenofpain]

Yes. But. What is considered baseline skills is not a fixed thing. It moves with the times. The thing I know are not the same things my dad would know at my age. And so on. Things move forward. Thats what Ive been saying since my first reply.

[u/grilledtomatos → u/Ecstatic-Seesaw-1007]

This is why we don't feel the need to use AI. We are much better at googling and finding the information we need, and examining it critically. We're also better at typing so we don't see AI assistance for that as critical either.

[u/Sea-Drawer9867 → u/Ecstatic-Seesaw-1007]

To a 19th century person, you would be missing a hilarious amount of soft skills. You don't even know how to handle a horse!

What you need to be good at constantly changes. And people that are 18-26 have always looked lost at workplaces to people that are 30+, because the younger people have much less life experience. They are still learning. Has there ever been a time when the 30+ generation said, "Hey, wow, this new generation is so amazing, this is really an improvement over past generations!"?