by me, Kerry Burgess, 06/22/2026 09:41 AM
WHY THE HELL is that "A.I."?
I was doing that exact same thing 30 years ago.
Gimmick.
Their jobs are not being threatened by some ridiculous specter they call "artificial intelligence". Their jobs are threatened because they're dumb and stupid.
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/technology/ai/articles/tech-workers-spending-nights-weekends-110001055.html
Yahoo! News
Business Insider
Tech workers are spending nights and weekends learning new AI tools. They say they can't afford not to.
Jacob Zinkula
Sun, June 21, 2026 at 4:00 AM PDT 5 min read
Many tech workers are spending their free time experimenting with AI to avoid falling behind.
For some workers, the issue isn't access to AI tools on the job — it's finding time to explore them.
As companies cut jobs and invest in AI, many workers feel pressure to keep up with the technology.
One night after work in Dublin, Maahir Sharma watched an AI agent that he built call hotels in the United States and negotiate room rates on his behalf.
The project wasn't part of his job. It was one of many AI experiments he pursues outside work to stay current in an industry being reshaped by AI.
Sharma, a software engineer at a Big Tech company, says AI has dramatically increased his productivity, helping him complete some tasks in days that once took months. But he also spends about 20 hours a week outside of work experimenting with AI tools like Cursor, a coding assistant he pays for out of pocket.
"I think experimentation with AI is very important," said the 24-year-old. "If you don't have hands-on experience, it could be difficult to survive in the industry."
Sharma is among the tech workers who say AI's rise is creating an unexpected tradeoff. The technology is helping them save time at work, but it's costing them time after work, as they try to keep pace with rapidly evolving tools and skills. An Ernst & Young survey of more than 1,000 US desk workers across six industries conducted last year found that 85% were learning how to use AI outside of work.
For many workers, the after-hours experimentation is fueled as much by interest in the technology as by a desire to remain competitive. Meta and Microsoft have offered multimillion-dollar compensation packages to top AI talent even as both companies have laid off thousands of workers in recent years. Hiring for AI engineers on LinkedIn has surged since 2022, while hiring for many traditional engineering roles has remained flat or declined, according to data shared with Business Insider.
Business Insider is speaking with workers who've found themselves at a corporate crossroads — whether due to a layoff, resignation, job search, or shifting workplace expectations.
The new AI homework
In early 2025, Tanvi Pisal began to worry that AI could be coming for her job.
Pisal, then a product designer at an AI healthcare startup in San Jose, said a company leadership summit underscored how quickly AI was advancing, raising concerns that some UX and product design tasks could eventually be automated.
She decided to start expanding her AI skills and exploring other opportunities, but last October, she was laid off. An email accompanying the cuts said they were tied to the company's rapid adoption of AI.
Today, Pisal, now a UX design contractor for a Big Tech company, spends 10 to 15 hours a week outside work learning about AI, including experimenting with tools and attending workshops. She has also spent hundreds of dollars on AI tools and workshops, including subscriptions to ChatGPT and Claude.
"If I don't spend a few hours over the weekend catching up on updates, experimenting with tools, or reading about what's new, I start falling behind," said Pisal, who's 29 and lives in San Jose.
While some workers point to gaps in AI training, others said time is the bigger constraint. Despite using AI extensively on the job, many said their day-to-day responsibilities leave limited time to explore the growing number of AI tools and models. The challenge isn't just keeping up with the tools they need at work today, but understanding which ones may matter tomorrow.
Still, not all tech workers feel pressure to learn AI after hours.
Manoj Aggarwal, a lead engineer at a large software company, spends a couple of hours a week outside work experimenting with AI tools and about $60 a month on subscriptions. He said his employer provides access to many of the latest AI tools, allowing him to develop AI skills on the job. Much of his reading and experimentation happens after his young daughter falls asleep.
Udit Mehrotra, a head of product at Amazon, spends roughly five to seven hours a week outside work experimenting with AI. He said that last December, he built 10 apps in about a month, working evenings and weekends with Claude Code as his main assistant. In recent months, however, he's tried to approach the learning in a more sustainable way.
"I've come to think of this less like a sprint and more like a marathon," said Mehrotra, who's in his 30s and lives in Seattle.
An Amazon spokesperson said in a statement that the company provides employees with AI training and learning resources, including an internal hub that helps workers identify AI tools relevant to their work. The spokesperson said Amazon encourages employees to experiment with AI as part of their day-to-day work.
For some, the pace of change in the industry has made something closer to a sprint feel like the best option.
Abhinav Bohra, a senior applied scientist at Amazon based in Seattle, spends roughly eight to 12 hours a week outside work keeping up with AI. He said he spent about $3,000 over the past year on AI tools, conference fees, and professional memberships.
"Continuous learning has quietly become part of the job, even when it happens outside the job," said the 32-year-old.
Much of Bohra's AI learning happens on evenings and weekends because his workday is consumed by meetings and deliverables. The result, he said, is a "learning tax" that blurs the line between professional development and personal time.
"The concern isn't that one AI tool will replace me overnight," he said. "The bigger concern is becoming technically stale in a field where the baseline is constantly moving."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Schmidt
Eric Schmidt
From Wikipedia
Eric Emerson Schmidt (born April 27, 1955)
He attended Princeton University, starting as an architecture major and switching to electrical engineering, earning a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree in 1976.
Novell
In April 1997, Schmidt became the CEO and chairman of the board of Novell. He presided over a period of decline at Novell where its IPX protocol was being replaced by open TCP/IP products, while at the same time Microsoft was shipping free TCP/IP stacks in Windows 95, making Novell much less profitable. In 2001, he departed
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin interviewed Schmidt. Impressed by him, they recruited Schmidt to run their company in 2001
IMDb
Idiocracy (2006)
Quotes
Pvt. Joe Bowers: For the last time, I'm pretty sure what's killing the crops is this Brawndo stuff.
Secretary of State: But Brawndo's got what plants crave. It's got electrolytes.
Attorney General: So wait a minute. What you're saying is that you want us to put water on the crops?
Pvt. Joe Bowers: Yes
Attorney General: Water. Like out the toilet?
Pvt. Joe Bowers: Well, I mean, it doesn't have to be out of the toilet, but, yeah, that's the idea.
Secretary of State: But Brawndo's got what plants crave.
Attorney General: It's got electrolytes.
Pvt. Joe Bowers: Okay, look. The plants aren't growing, so I'm pretty sure that the Brawndo's not working. Now, I'm no botanist, but I do know that if you put water on plants, they grow.
Secretary of Energy: Well, I've never seen no plants grow out of no toilet.
Secretary of State: Hey, that's good. You sure you ain't the smartest guy in the world?
From 6/5/1987 ( as me, Kerry Burgess, my official enlisted US Navy documents includes: Earned NEC 1189 - Based on graduation from the Terrier Mk 152 Guided-missiles Fire Control Computers Complex course - Naval Guided Missiles School, Dam Neck, Virginia Beach, Virginia, US Navy - leading to permanent assignment until 1990 to CF-division, Missile Plot - guided-missiles Fire Control Computers Complex (operator and advanced technician, UNIVAC digital-computers Mk152 Terrier System for, primarily, SM2-ER {Extended Range} Standard Missiles ordnance), USS Wainwright CG-28, US Navy, while enlisted paygrade E-5, designated Fire Controlman Petty Officer Second Class (FC2) ) To 4/7/1997 ( ) is 3594 days
3594 = 1797 + 1797
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 10/4/1970 ( ) is 1797 days
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Educational_Television
National Educational Television
From Wikipedia
National Educational Television (NET) was an American educational broadcast television network owned by the Ford Foundation and later co-owned by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It operated from May 16, 1954, to October 4, 1970, and was succeeded by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)
The programming was noted for treating subjects in depth, including hour-long interviews with people of literary and historical importance. The programming was also noted for being dry and academic, with little consideration given to entertainment value, a marked contrast to commercial television. Many of the shows were designed as adult education, and ETRC was nicknamed the "University of the Air" (or, less kindly, "The Bicycle Network", both for its low budget and for the way NET supposedly sent programs to its affiliates, by distributing its program films and videotapes via non-electronic means such as by mail, termed in the television industry as "bicycling").
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aether_(classical_element)
Aether (classical element)
From Wikipedia
According to ancient and medieval science, aether ( alternative spellings include æther, aither, and ether), also known as the fifth element or quintessence, is the material that fills the region of the universe beyond the terrestrial sphere. The concept of aether was used in several theories to explain several natural phenomena, such as the propagation of light and gravity. In the late 19th century, physicists postulated that aether permeated space, providing a medium through which light could travel in a vacuum, but evidence for the presence of such a medium was not found in the Michelson–Morley experiment, and this result has been interpreted to mean that no luminiferous aether exists.
- by me, Kerry Wayne Burgess, posted by me: 09:51 AM Pacific-timezone USA Monday 06/22/2026
