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1. Embed this notice
   Stefano Marinelli (stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe)'s status on Monday, 12-Oct-2026 21:26:54 JST Stefano Marinelli

   I got a call from someone I don't know.

   "Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"

   "Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."

   "That much?"

   Some silence.

   "Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.

   Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.

   I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.

   #IT #SysAdmin

   • GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) and SuperDicq repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Xenotar (xenotar@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 13-Oct-2026 00:09:32 JST Xenotar

     in reply to

     @stefano And you didn't charge too much for the task—it was more suited for a miracle-working saint on steroids.

   • Embed this notice
     Christophe B. :android: (bladecoder@androiddev.social)'s status on Tuesday, 13-Oct-2026 02:21:21 JST Christophe B. :android:

     in reply to

     @stefano Reminds me of this

   • Embed this notice
     Xenotar (xenotar@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 15-Oct-2026 13:22:37 JST Xenotar

     in reply to

     • Marcos Dione

     @stefano @mdione Your experience is the same as mine, which is why I said that the price you presented and asked for was low.

   • Embed this notice
     Stefano Marinelli (stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe)'s status on Thursday, 15-Oct-2026 13:22:39 JST Stefano Marinelli

     in reply to

     • Marcos Dione

     @mdione I don't like losing jobs, actually. But from the tone of the conversation, the situation itself, and my experience, I had the feeling this wasn't going to be just a job. It was going to be a responsibility I didn't want to take on.

     I've learned to recognise situations that can easily turn into "We tried everything, then called a professional, and even he couldn't fix it."

     The €500 spent on AI tokens are already gone, and that's apparently fine. But if I spend hours investigating and can't recover the server, suddenly my time becomes something to argue about. And if I fix it in ten minutes? "Why should we pay so much? It only took you ten minutes!"

     I've seen this kind of situation before. And while I genuinely enjoy helping people, sometimes even for free, I've also learned when it's better to walk away.

     It's not something I enjoy doing. But sometimes avoiding trouble is worth more than getting another job. 😉

   • Embed this notice
     Marcos Dione (mdione@en.osm.town)'s status on Thursday, 15-Oct-2026 13:22:40 JST Marcos Dione

     in reply to

     @stefano yeah, maybe... TBH I don't do freelancing; I have done some in the past, but not as my main income. OTOH, I once recovered a partition table for free (I even wrote about it; it's part of my CV :) because it was interesting to do, I knew the person, and their PhD depended on it. I never took into account if it was their fault or not (it wasn't).

     But again, not my breadwinner. And you seem fine with not taking jobs.

   • Embed this notice
     Stefano Marinelli (stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe)'s status on Thursday, 15-Oct-2026 13:22:42 JST Stefano Marinelli

     in reply to

     • Marcos Dione

     @mdione No, prices aren't like that. They may vary. In this specific situation, considering what they told me, I was quite sure it was going to be a complicated task. So that's why I kept myself higher than usual.

   • Embed this notice
     Marcos Dione (mdione@en.osm.town)'s status on Thursday, 15-Oct-2026 13:22:43 JST Marcos Dione

     in reply to

     @stefano ah, so your prices are like that, the way you put it in the toot sounded like "the same you already spent in IA plus the hours of work".

   • Embed this notice
     Stefano Marinelli (stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe)'s status on Thursday, 15-Oct-2026 13:22:44 JST Stefano Marinelli

     in reply to

     • Marcos Dione

     @mdione no punishment at all. If you call me and say "I need to upgrade my server", it's one thing. If you call me and say "my server isn't working, not booting anymore, I do not have any backups, I don't know what happens", I need to investigate first.

     I'm not punishing anyone, but you can't expect to call me and fix it in 10 minutes, offering a coffee as a payment.

   • Embed this notice
     Marcos Dione (mdione@en.osm.town)'s status on Thursday, 15-Oct-2026 13:22:45 JST Marcos Dione

     in reply to

     @stefano I don't know, feels like the +500 is punishment for reaching to AI instead of a person, and you chose that instead as a teaching moment of "don't trust AIs ever again".

     I know lots of non computering people who use AI for one reason or another, and I don't scold them, but I take every opportunity to try to teach them. Last Sunday I explained some issues about AI data centers, and the people honestly didn't know. The one that asked most questions said themselves were "a total ignorant".