I've done manual labor in both construction and at a lumber mill.
Invariably, the following happened:
- I was given grunt work as a I was the new/junior guy
- Did this for about 1.5 weeks
- After the above, someone (usually the owner's wife) would say something like: "Instead of Alex doing grunt work, why doesn't he helps us <fix technology thing>"
And that ranged from "order us a new computer" to "fix the North American Controls lumber sorter machine".
My point is:
Being able to solve complex problems is a surprisingly transferable skill. It's so transferable that even in the trades, if you can solve those problems, people will identify it and rapidly move you to the most complex problems they have.
My working life has always been exactly like this. I'm not sure why, but I always tried to avoid doing tech for a living. Grew up in construction, joined the military, when I got out I was just going to follow in Dad's footsteps and went to finish my journeyman as an electrician. But as the company was growing, the technical and managerial skills were harder to come by and they wanted me to give it a shot. A similar cycle kept happening in every position I've held - facilities management, stationary engineering... once my technical skillset was realized, both the skillset and it's direct skills (development, etc) and the problem solving skills were asked of me to be utilized.
With that, never having a reason to intrinsically develop that sense of solving complex problems is one of the biggest heartbreaks to come along with AI.
alexpotato · · focus · HN ↗
Invariably, the following happened:
- I was given grunt work as a I was the new/junior guy
- Did this for about 1.5 weeks
- After the above, someone (usually the owner's wife) would say something like: "Instead of Alex doing grunt work, why doesn't he helps us <fix technology thing>"
And that ranged from "order us a new computer" to "fix the North American Controls lumber sorter machine".
My point is: Being able to solve complex problems is a surprisingly transferable skill. It's so transferable that even in the trades, if you can solve those problems, people will identify it and rapidly move you to the most complex problems they have.
camcil · · focus · HN ↗
With that, never having a reason to intrinsically develop that sense of solving complex problems is one of the biggest heartbreaks to come along with AI.
alexpotato · · focus · HN ↗
This is another good point:
being good at solving problems is different than being good at a specific technical skill.
e.g. there is a reason patio11 has his "don't call yourself a programmer" [0] post.
0 - <a href="https://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-programmer/" rel="nofollow">https://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-pr...