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The last time my family was replaced by technology

339 points · 641 comments · megalomanu

  1. harimau777 · · focus · HN ↗
    Have any of these articles actually addressed HOW software developers are supposed to retrain for good jobs? Personally I have neither the money nor the years to go back to college to get a livable job.
    1. bruce511 · · focus · HN ↗
      So obviously each college is different. And your experience is not mine.

      But my college did not train me to get a job the first time. Indeed they explicitly explained to us that that was not their goal. That was helpful because up to then we did think they were doing job training.

      What they actually set out to do was make us "smarter" people. In the sense that they taught us to analyze problems, work in teams, find creative solutions. They taught us about research and critical thinking, and logic and so on. How to hypothesize, test, evaluate, adapt.

      You don't need to go back to college to learn all that again. You already know it. Skills are easily, and quickly taught and learned. That's the easy part. The hard part is approaching a job as a problem to solve- how and where to add value. Value people will pay for.

      Look around you. See unmet needs. Figure out what you need to do to meet those needs. That's the real challenge we face going into this next era.

      1. dmkolobov · · focus · HN ↗
        Did you graduate yesterday? Have you actually lived in the world?

        My unmet needs are $2.5k rent and $2k childcare, per month. Then there's food, healthcare, car payments. There is pretty much zero wiggle room for us.

        1. ForHackernews · · focus · HN ↗
          If you're unemployed, you won't need to pay 2 grand/month for someone else to watch your children, and you don't have to pay San Francisco rents if you're not working there.
          1. harimau777 · · focus · HN ↗
            I don't think "just give up your existing community and move" is a viable option. That defeats the whole point since at that point the retraining isn't allowing you to maintain your quality of life.
            1. bruce511 · · focus · HN ↗
              I'm assuming you're talking about people born in SF? Because the rest have already demonstrated a willingness to give up their community once in the pursuit of quality of life.

              Equally, if you are in SF you're about to feel the pain you've caused to the locals by moving there. Somewhat harshly, I could suggest that you didn't care about their existing community when you priced them out of their neighborhoods.

              So here's the rub. SF is somewhat different. It is a company town. If you don't work for the company you're moving. Sorry. There's certainly nothing else that can pay you the same money.

              On the up side, there are lots send lots of cheaper places to live. And chances are you can find a good job there doing something that adds value to that community.

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