HACKER Q&A
📣 akasakahakada

How to deal with colleague that think I am his personal ChatGPT?


For some background info, he is a computation chemistry PhD with 20 years of coding experience. He should be viewed as a senior.

And me, a young junior without PhD.

My colleague never stop asking me any slightest question that you can find the answer by googling. For instance how to do git pull, how to update github token, what's the meaning of ValueError in Python, etc. For some questions I have already answered twice and he noted the solution somewhere twice as well, just never learn.

When I took month long paid long vacation, he begged me to come back frequently because he will be helpless that no one he can ask. But I don't give a F. Because our job has zero overlap and I don't know shit about what he is working on. We just happen to sit in the same lab. Everytime he ask me stuff, I google thing and teach him back because I don't have that knowledge. But why am I doing this?

Moreover, he wouldn't read his own email. Several times he show me the email and ask what's that mean even though that's written in language that he should understand.

I have already shown him how to use Google, ChatGPT, DeepL, but at the end I am still his personal ChatGPT.

How to deal with such person so that I can work on my stuff?


  👤 philbin Accepted Answer ✓
He may be hiding a learning disorder, vision or memory problems. He may/may not be aware of his problem(s). Your task depends on how much you are a friend but in any case rolls out to

a) finding what his problem(s) are,

b) telling him about them in a serious and private conversation, probably outside of work, and finally

c) encouraging him to address any problems with professional help if necessary.


👤 h2odragon
"Do you need an assistant? I understood my job here to be $X and $Y; but your need for assistance might justify further staffing or at least clarification of my job priorities"

probably with more polite wrapped around it; thats about as far as i go that way.

I'd be inclined to set them on fire when they wander in asking distracting questions. I'm not terribly social.

I like the implications of the way you ask; we're not sure what "AI" is, if we have it yet; but we have an unspoken certainty that it will be a mute, obedient servant willing to put up with being used in ways we humans will not.

So what we're after with AI isn't "intelligence", as much as "obedience?"


👤 mech422
Do like ChatGPT - Hallucinate :-P