Justin Searls asks which of your colleagues are screwed?

I’ve been writing about how AI is likely to affect white-collar (or no-collar or hoodie-wearing) computer programmers […] Think about a random colleague you don’t feel particularly strongly about as you read the following pithy and reductive bullet points. […] They’re going to be screwed if they exhibit:

• Curiosity without skepticism
• Strategy without experiments
• Ability without understanding
• Productivity without urgency
• Creativity without taste
• Certainty without evidence

I recently said that I think curiosity is what makes a good software engineer, and gave examples of when/how they should be curious, but never pointed out that it has to come with a balancing function.

I can’t think of anything done 100% full-throttle that isn’t detrimental without something to balance it, but it’s tacit and not something I often think about immediately. For example, if you live your life 100% in service it will be limiting, a bit of selfishness is required, see Doug Forcett from The Good Place.