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A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

nytimes.com

151–160 of 436 posts

Re: A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

#151
post #89

I would be very careful about basing your career decsions based on this trend. The data center build out will always be very boom and bust, which would really suck to work in. One year you would be making 300k working on dataceters and the next you would make 30k because thousands of electricians are now competing to build a few single family homes.

Sure, but these also aren't professions that will disappear when data center demand goes down or will get automated away in the long term.

I’d go as far as to say that for someone in their teens electrician (or trades in general) is a more stable long term career path than software engineer.

Re: A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

#152
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

>50% of the US population live in single-family, detached houses. It is one thing to be combative, it is another to be combative and wrong. "normal" people live in detached homes

What’s the detachment of the home have to do with it?

Re: A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

#153
post #89

I would be very careful about basing your career decsions based on this trend. The data center build out will always be very boom and bust, which would really suck to work in. One year you would be making 300k working on dataceters and the next you would make 30k because thousands of electricians are now competing to build a few single family homes.

On the other hand, the economy is going to be increasingly electrified. Demand is going to be there in some form.

On a third hand, electricity is just movement of electrons.

While DC is driving electrons down the line, AC is basically just when you vibrate them around.

Anyway my point is the field (no pun intended) may change drastically in the increasingly electrified future. I'm personally excited for more wireless power in areas, and the concept of ambient energy - harvesting power out of the already vibrating electrons in the static in the air.

Re: A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

#154

[flagged]

USA is not building anything. Private companies are. And unlike regular infrastructure projects (housing, transportation, energy) this won’t really benefit the public at large when it’s done. It’ll just enable companies to churn out more slop, faster, and reel us further in. Or to put it another way, a semiconductor, car or airplane factory wouldn’t really count as “infrastructure”, would they?

It’s also always been private companies doing the building no? Just funding and ownership could be public.

Re: A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't that average out to 165K / year? That's not so bad IMO!

I'd imagine those 300K years they're not just working 40 hours a week, more like 70+ hours. Add higher taxes on those years and it becomes less attractive.

Oooof. I pity the poor fool who has to pay taxes on their 300k annual salary.

Re: A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm not even talking about at work, I'm saying that a large majority of Americans are using AI of their own free will in situations where it's not required but is genuinely useful. The sheer number of people means that a lot of them must also say they're anti-AI, and my point is that whether or not they say they like it they're undeniably choosing to use it. I don't think there's really a contradiction there. You ca…

>You can recognize the utility of something while acknowledging that, on the whole, it'd be better if it didn't exist. There's a word for that: hypocrisy.

No. That's not what the word means.

Re: A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

#157
Next, plumbers. The future of data centers seems to be more liquid cooling and less ductwork. Take a look at this new 1 megawatt server rack.[1] It has more pipes than cables. All that coolant flow and all that electrical power in a crowded space is scary.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ssp1t-g_wM

Re: A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is frequently wood in buildings yes

There is zero wood in a data center (or commercial building in general) excluding doors, millwork, and fire-rated plywood for mounting equipment on. It’s simply not allowed. Data center are tip-up warehouses with walls made of reinforced concrete, metal bar joists, metal columns, and metal roofs. Any interior wall framing is made of steel.

I don't know anything about this so I am curious: that doesn't sound like a lot of wood work so why are the AI companies recruiting so many carpenters?

Re: A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

#159
post #11

It's nice to hear tradespeople getting paid well with lots of work. I'm happy for them :-)

Yes, that's good. It also prices out a lot of other better uses for their labor. Projects I work on have seen prices soar. I don't consider building the things everyone hates because they promise concentration of wealth and an attack on labor at the expense of building literally anything else to be somehow a big W for labor because a few people get a slightly higher temporary paycheck. Ask the Wagyu cows how they fee…

"It also prices out a lot of other better uses for their labor...."

"Projects I work on..."

Re: A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

#160
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>however, it is never explained as to how he waves a magic wand and fixes the many, many entirely man-made problems we have. It's explained in the Book of Revelations - Jesus comes back and kills everyone who isn't Christian (and actually most Christians too) with plagues and fire and violence and burns the world down to ashes. And then (something something multi-headed dragon something something Whore of Babylon) a…

>Jesus comes back and kills everyone who isn't Christian (and actually most Christians too) I don't recall this part what's the reference

Are you under the impression that after the seven seals and seven trumpets and four horsemen and oceans turning to blood and earthquakes and famines and everything leading to a new Heaven and new Earth that most people will survive unscathed?

The entire thesis of Christian eschatology is that everyone who isn't Christian burns in hell. And Matthew says regarding the end times "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

Maybe you should read your Bible again, it's pretty clear that Heaven is meant to be a very exclusive club that even most Christians won't get into.

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