A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands • Hacker News Board

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

#331

Post by bawolff » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 5:12 AM UTC

gpt5 wrote: post #324

Animats wrote: post #312

The next demand for those trades will be for war plants. For those who haven't noticed, the US/Israel/Iran war and the Ukraine/Russia war just merged. Countries currently shooting at each other: Ukraine, Russia, Iran, Israel, US, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait... See the lead story in the New York Times for the past two days. This war has crossed an important threshold. No pai…

Most of these countries have been participating in bombing or getting bombed on and off for the last decade (and longer). You are reading too much into the current media hype cycle, and not really reading the geopolitics in place, which puts a lot of pressure internally on these countries to not escalate further. This includes both Ukraine / Russia and the middle east which you are so eager to tie together on the sli…

While i agree that the poster is reading way too much into this, i'm not sure about the geopolitics.

Iran is friends with Russia and has helped them with their weapons program in the past. None of the countries allied with Ukraine like Iran. Iran (and its allies) have almost no ability to counter strike Ukraine.

Ukraine picking a fight with Iran, or at least stopping their boats from visiting Russian ports, seems like a strategy Ukraine could plausibly persue without too much downside.

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

#332

Post by Frieren » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 5:15 AM UTC

Why should software companies hire electricians and carpenters by the thousands?

Because these are not AI companies, these are infrastructure companies as their main source of revenue and cost is renting and building infrastructure.

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

#333

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 5:32 AM UTC

[deleted]

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

#334

Post by ammojamo » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 5:33 AM UTC

Johanx64 wrote: post #303

arkey wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> These are people who seem to put in more effort than most, and are sincere in their belief. No, check this out: "have WE not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?" They are not sincere in their belief. Real Christians believe and rely in Christ and His work alone. The people this verse refers to are to the end clinging to their own merit and trying…

> Real Christians believe and rely in Christ and His work alone. The people this verse refers to are to the end *clinging to their own merit and trying to earn their salvation through their own works* rather than rely on Christ's perfect work on the cross. Man, this is bloody convenient innit. "Yo, amma big piece of shit, but lets be real here, ain't gonna self correct that shit by my own merit and by doing good work…

I understand the point you're making, but the criticism underlying this childish caricature of the Christian faith is discussed extensively in the Bible in books such as Romans and James.

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

#335

Post by leonidasrup » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 5:38 AM UTC

mjevans wrote: post #314

limecherrysoda wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

DC is super weird that way... The actual velocity of an electron down that line is, offhand, extremely slow compared to the speed of light. Think of DC more like you're trying to pump a frozen ice mixture drink (trying to avoid any of the major brand names) down a straw. If you melt it, that's loss to heat. If the pressure gets there that's DC current. The AC vibrations are the same thing except it's like the lever a…

Good intrpduction are Veritasium videos:

"How Electricity Actually Works"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI_X2cMHNe0

"The Biggest Misconception About Electricity"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHIhgxav9LY

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

#336

Post by gib444 » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 5:52 AM UTC

phil21 wrote: post #163

gib444 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone should just compete with the trillions of dollars of capital floating around for AI? And it's their fault for suddenly being 'poor'? Sounds like you're assuming people are paying pennies for labour. I don't think that's true at all While we're at it, how much should small bathroom, 2 week renovation cost? $100,000 in labour?

> While we're at it, how much should small bathroom, 2 week renovation cost? $100,000 in labour? Obviously much more than 2 weeks worth of work at a commercial job, since that's the worst possible kind of work you could ever offer any tradesman. Maybe 8x the hourly rate would be fair since it's intermittent work with generally horrible customers? It's been interesting to watch the IT/engineering classes all of a sudd…

That's a nice story and barely a reply to my comment, not engaging at all.

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

#337

Post by altmanaltman » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 5:53 AM UTC

Animats wrote: post #312

The next demand for those trades will be for war plants. For those who haven't noticed, the US/Israel/Iran war and the Ukraine/Russia war just merged. Countries currently shooting at each other: Ukraine, Russia, Iran, Israel, US, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait... See the lead story in the New York Times for the past two days. This war has crossed an important threshold. No pai…

Wait who is Egpyt, Bahrain and Kuwait shooting at?

Also why would you not include Afghanistan and its war with Pakistan or China's various diplomatic issues with its neighbors?

Why would you ignore all the wars and conflict going on in rest of the African continent?

Your comment come across trying to piece together a particular vision of world conflicts that maps neatly into suiting a narrative. You say its the current reality but its only a slice of the current reality and a lot of it is factually wrong.

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

#338

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 5:56 AM UTC

bluGill wrote: post #209

gib444 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Trades work is hard And lots of tradespeople do very well. Many of the bigger houses round here have work vans in the drives. Many of them are landlords too with significant assets. My street is slowly filling up with rentals, mostly by landlord tradespeople. I was just chatting to a retired one yesterday at the station and he said he was going to have an extremely good retirement until he got divorced and she took…

My company still has somebody working for them who is in his 80s. When he retires his ex gets half is pension - but he isn't retired....

[deleted]

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

#339

Post by xtajv » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 6:15 AM UTC

cucumber3732842 wrote: post #271

chasd00 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, an electrician just doesn't pop into existence. You have to go through years of apprenticeship and union dues payments.

[flagged]

I'm reminded of the phrase "regulations are written in blood".

I'm also tempted to point out that anybody can give high-voltage work a whirl.... once.

---

But what do I know, I'm not a sparky, I'm one of them snot-nosed software engineering types. Y'know, the one engineering field that's too free and clever to get licensed, bonded, insured, or unionized. /s

Who needs regulation, anyways? I bet Matthew Broderick's Wargames was pure science fiction, and Upton Sinclair's The Jungle was just an exaggeration. Let's go burn some OSHA manuals and start up an Ayn Rand bookclub! /s

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

#340

Post by paul7986 » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 6:16 AM UTC

someothherguyy wrote: post #309

paul7986 wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a UX Researcher, UX Design and Developer by trade since 2009. I don't know iphone development, python, any back end stuff and or in depth JS stuff. But, Codex does and just by typing I just published a startup in python in two weeks using Codex and it's iPhone app will be available soon. How do you not think AI will not destroy programming jobs if anyone can type to create anything they want or share your screen…

> How do you not think AI will not destroy programming jobs if anyone can type to create anything they want or share your screen with Codex and have it guide you via voice? Extrapolate that to any other engineering or even medical discipline and you will understand that your conclusion has some flaws.

Well i guess there are two sides of table / arguement. Im on the side of believing the hype of the AI overlords who promote UBI not cause I don't want to work because I personally experience and see it slowly playing out now.