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# How Technology Influences the Nature of Work

These slides: [https://ilr.tplus1.com/slides.html](https://ilr.tplus1.com/slides.html)

In markdown format: [https://ilr.tplus1.com/slides.md](https://ilr.tplus1.com/slides.md)

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## Me

- My name is Matt (he / him) and since 2006, I cofounded or worked on
  several startups.

- Most were Software as a Service (SaaS) startups focusing on workflow
  automation or worker productivity or regulation compliance

- I'm not rich

- I've seen how software products alter people's lives, good and bad

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## My main idea

- In economic terms, as firms grow larger, worker quality of life / job
  satisfaction often becomes an externality, sort of like pollution.

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## OnShift

- Prototype in 2006: find somebody to work a shift by blasting texts to
  qualified and available employees

- By 2009, the software could plan shift schedules for (theoretically)
  any workforce.

- Employees could trade shifts with each other, apply for open shifts,
  modify schedule, etc.

- Employee buy-in was critical at the start

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## OnShift later features

- Small customers don't pay much and we had investors pushing for growth

- Big nursing home chains wanted features like:

  - cut scheduled hours to regulatory minimums
  - recommend lowest-paid employees for any open shift

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## Is kinda like Enshittification

- Once you're selling a product to the boss who is going to use it to
  spy on / control their workers, the product doesn't need to be fun to
  use

- User buy-in isn't a bottleneck like it once was

- the people using the product weren't happy to see me anymore

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## SpotHero

- Marketplace app for parking. Launched in Chicago. Allows you to
  reserve a parking spot in the future

- At first, we needed the attendants to promote the app

- A few years after launch, nobody cares if the attendants liked it,
  because the garage owners mandated it

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## Complion (FDA drug trial software)

> "...a software industrial complex has changed how companies are run
> (usually for the worst like silos and constraining org chart
> structures, particularly due to enterprise software)"

*from Complion founder*

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## Streamliner

- In-house product for a retail liquidator

- Shipping containers arrived daily with random products from retailers
  for resale (think like last season's merch)

- Boss put his own workers in charge of giving me feature requests

- So much fun to build!

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## SofaConcerts (1)

- web marketplace that matches musicians and venues

- Average venue gets 3 artists for every open spot

- Artists get more gigs (like by adding house party shows during tours)

- Artists get guaranteed payment because funds go in escrow before
  performance

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## SofaConcerts (2)

- They have turned down several investment / acquisition offers

> "we make it easier for touring artists to visit smaller villages and
> towns."

- Without investors that pushing for aggressive growth, they can focus
  on their social goals

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## W. Edwards Deming

> 12a. Remove barriers that rob the hourly worker of his right to pride
> of workmanship&#8230;
>
> 12b. &#8230;This means, inter alia, abolishment of the annual or merit
> rating and of management by objective.

[Point 12 from 14 points for management](https://deming.org/explore/fourteen-points/)

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## How does AI fit in with this?

- coding agents really are very powerful

> "It's like programming wearing power armor"

- I pay $20/month for a coding agent that replaces what two other people
  would do full-time (or I'd have to do it)

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## The SaaS business model

0. Raise (or have) a few million bucks based on an idea

1. Hire programmers to build a software application customers can't live
   without

2. Sell subscriptions

3. Add features to keep customers hooked

Investors fund development because they are betting you can execute on
your vision.

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## "I oneshotted photoshop"

- ArtCraft is using coding agents to build an open-source implementation
  of everything that Adobe offers.

- People seem to like it

- This is just one example of how code may not be as valuable as it used
  to be

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## Causes for optimism

- If your boss and you have a good rapport, maybe the era of coding
  agents means it is cheaper now to make tools you like to use

- coding agents mean small teams can build out bigger projects now
  without taking investment money, so they can stay true to their vision

- There are a lot of really good open-source coding agents.  People are
  working on running these on low-cost hardware (in other words, not
  hyperscale data centers).

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## Thanks for having me!

- I love hearing y'all's thoughts!

email: matt@216software.com