Stories that sound true, but (probably) aren't.

I've seen this Reddit post make the rounds. It talks about how AI replaced QA and then it went wrong.

But here's the thing. It's 99% probably not true. It sounds true, but it's a more of a story that could be true, and we wish to be true.

Who bothers to check the actual Reddit account? If you did, the most obvious red flag is that it is a new account, created about 2 months ago. Combine that with the non-secret that communities are enshittified and that Reddit definitely has a bot problem. And come to your own conclusions.

Yet, people flock and share. No fact checking. No care for truth. Just drama, likes, upvotes.

And it's a problem. Not just this story. But all the stories that circulate. There are so many. We quickly react and share without considering the consequences. It sounds true, so must be real!

Never have tech teams been under so much pressure to move quickly. These dramatic stories increase the pressure. They are absorbed as truth, however, never has there been so much lack of truth. And increasingly, it is harder to know what to believe.

There are no easy answers to this. For me, I choose to reject places like Reddit, and then I focus on real people and conversations to understand what is actually happening. I look for signs of proof. I question with curiousity. Did that really happen, or is it just false AI whispers? 

Of course, much of this is touching base with real humans. Adding layers of care. And putting boundaries in place. 

I also choose to share in the open, like I am now. We have to call these things out and be mindful where we choose to spend our time.