We, the #graybeards of the world, are standing up.
To CEOs: we've run your businesses for 40 years, generating trillions in value, and building the digital world we all inhabit. Coding it, securing it, maintaining it. We silently corrected your bad decisions and allowed you to reap the benefits because we don't want fame. We do this job because we love it. Like any skilled craftspeople, we expected to be fairly compensated and we were. Ours was an uneasy compact, but it worked. However, the game has now changed and we're not going gentle into that AI goodnight. You will hear our voices.
To our fellow graybeards: the time has come to say ENOUGH! It's no longer acceptable to sit back and watch the infrastructure into which we've poured our blood, sweat, and tears be torn down by clueless technocrats and fussy business analysts with a bachelor's degree and a chatbot. This isn't just about our paychecks. It's about our identities and standing up to the people who mean to discard us. It's time to recognize our power and our worth as tech professionals and human beings, and say NO.
To the public: your anger at us is misplaced. We despaired along with you as auto workers and miners and factory workers, one by one, were displaced while we continued to thrive. That wasn't fair. But don't equate us with the Silicon Valley robber barons. We're little different from our brother and sister plumbers, welders, bricklayers, and electricians. We do a thing we love and we genuinely care about the communities we live in. We're standing up for you as well.
And to the AI companies: never forget you're taking a free ride on the labors of all of us. Enjoy it while it lasts. But when the inevitable crashes and breaches and spectacular Internet-wide outages happen - and they will - remember who told you so.
Graybeards, unite!