Yeah it’s fucked, our job has been destroyed from a fun team-based intellectual activity to being a button pusher. I imagine something similar happened to tailors who became factory sweatshop workers.
No point crying about it or coping that some bubble will pop and the genie will go back in the bottle. I’m pretty confident that’s not happening, though in the distant future some society will recognize that everything that can be automated should not be automated, that society will look very different and probably won’t happen in my lifetime (it will for one, I predict bring back tailors too).
So here’s my solution, leave the field. If what you enjoyed most was creative problem solving then moving to a field that enables that is the best solution. Yes the next Ruby on Rails app will involve even lesser creativity than before, but is that the situation for the next good aeroplane? Flying car? Small modular nuclear reactor. I suspect just button pushing for that won’t work nearly as well and that’s my plan anyway.
> I imagine something similar happened to tailors who became factory sweatshop workers.
I'm really wondering where this goes. I'm not sure we are going to the "tailors", but maybe I'm also biased.
Tailoring completly got lost - there are basically none* in western europe (* if you don't count the couple of shops that adjust your clothes a little - try to find clothes Made in Europe). So are we going out-of-business and our code is coming from (name a country)?
Or are we going to exist, but it's all Fortune 500 and smaller shops have no chance of establishing themselves anymore?
Or is it going to be totally different and small shops will flourish and the Fortune 500 will loose part of the market?
sashank_1509 · · focus · HN ↗
No point crying about it or coping that some bubble will pop and the genie will go back in the bottle. I’m pretty confident that’s not happening, though in the distant future some society will recognize that everything that can be automated should not be automated, that society will look very different and probably won’t happen in my lifetime (it will for one, I predict bring back tailors too).
So here’s my solution, leave the field. If what you enjoyed most was creative problem solving then moving to a field that enables that is the best solution. Yes the next Ruby on Rails app will involve even lesser creativity than before, but is that the situation for the next good aeroplane? Flying car? Small modular nuclear reactor. I suspect just button pushing for that won’t work nearly as well and that’s my plan anyway.
chrisandchris · · focus · HN ↗
I'm really wondering where this goes. I'm not sure we are going to the "tailors", but maybe I'm also biased.
Tailoring completly got lost - there are basically none* in western europe (* if you don't count the couple of shops that adjust your clothes a little - try to find clothes Made in Europe). So are we going out-of-business and our code is coming from (name a country)?
Or are we going to exist, but it's all Fortune 500 and smaller shops have no chance of establishing themselves anymore?
Or is it going to be totally different and small shops will flourish and the Fortune 500 will loose part of the market?