Efficiency and Culture

When the Western world discovered it could hire people in India for doing knowledge work, companies quickly wanted to copy the strategy.

In the name of efficiency. In the name of cost-savings. Work around the clock.

This bit of history reminds me of today, how we hurry to offshore our dev work to LLMs. AI is another offshoring event.

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Quickly, some jobs came back. We couldn’t delegate everything to India.

The jobs where culture gave us an edge, those jobs came back. Jobs where you added value with your interpretation skills, translation skills, because you understood the culture. Jobs where your personal integrity was the defining trait. Jobs where you helped build or maintain an image. Jobs where you could offer a specific expertise. Jobs where you understood so much about the customer and their wish for progress, that you knew where to innovate.

With those jobs, efficiency couldn’t compete. Efficiency couldn’t compete with culture.

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LLMs are blowing us away, and our instincts are to hurry to gain from the efficiency. In this frenzy, we risk sacrificing culture. Not necessarily, but beware.

Are you an expert in a domain? Will you help us discern where LLMs get it wrong?
Are you an inventor? Will you continue to push the boundaries of the craft?
Are you a contributor on a framework? Will you continue serving the community?
Are you an employee? Will you put your own reputation on the line for the work you submit?
Are you an owner? Will you continue creating an environment of personal development, a culture of mastery?

Avoid offshoring skills which give you a culture edge.