also: David Graeber's book Bullshit Jobs: A Theory was first published on May 14, 2018
What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers
381–390 of 1001 posts
Re: What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers
#382Scholars and academics have been bemoaning the pointlessness of what the article calls "knowledge work" for centuries. A few of my favorites: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_American_Scholar https://andrewmbailey.com/papers/Higher-order%20truths%20abo...
There's a well-known book that labels programmers as a specific type of pointless job. "Duct tapers" is the category. Also task masters, who would have a foot under the software development umbrella, have space in the book. "Bullshit Jobs" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs
This book and the "bullshit jobs" label is discussed extensively in the article.
Re: What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers
#383Addressing the question in the title, "What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers", look at what happened to printers. That was a good skilled trade for centuries. Then it just went away. Phototypesetting took the high volume end. Desktop publishing took the low end. Computer-controlled presses took press operators. And then the newspaper business died. I've heard homeless former printers…
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Re: What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers
#384Addressing the question in the title, "What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers", look at what happened to printers. That was a good skilled trade for centuries. Then it just went away. Phototypesetting took the high volume end. Desktop publishing took the low end. Computer-controlled presses took press operators. And then the newspaper business died. I've heard homeless former printers…
We remind people that Noema Magazine is owned by Berggruen Institute: https://berggruen.org/ Which is an AI booster: https://berggruen.org/projects/ai-visionaries You cannot read these articles posing as human interest without following the money.
Thank you! HN doesn't usually do specialty/novelty accounts but I've very excited about this one.
Re: What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers
#385I want to address something mentioned in the article about people wishing for for grounded occupations. I have a sheep farm and I could not keep it running without my tech salary. So I kinda view these as false escapes. Unless forced to or of independent means, who is going to throw themselves into the bottom fork of the “K-shaped” economy.
Okay - but for most types of agriculture, the minimum viable farm size is rather larger than it was a century or so ago. Might we ask how large your sheep farm is, by current commercial (vs. hobby) standards?
and the nutrition per lb has fallen. Farm slop
Re: What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers
#386Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah yes, any funding source invalidates all the arguments.... Does this article seem like an AI boosting article? Perhaps exactly the opposite? I dislike this article intensely, and disagree with it, but its lot because somehow the Berggruen Institute is shadow pushing AI here
Counterpoint - “look at how effective AI is, it’s made everyone realise their career is for nothing!”
Timeless tactic!
"The Power Mac G4 is so fast that it is classified as a supercomputer by the US government, and we are prohibited from exporting it to over 50 nations worldwide," Jobs said the Apple Expo, CNN reported in September 1999. (edit: added link)
https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-steve-jobs-us-export-c...
Re: What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers
#387Earlier quoted context omitted.
> look at what happened to printers… I've heard homeless former printers talking about the good days So what happens is that the capital class absorbs the capital of all those workers and then they all starve. How uplifting.
Eh, chin up. The machines and/or the replaced masses will rise up and kill the capital class in the end.
That's the fairy tale the capital class has fed us through mass media. There will be no machine uprising.
Re: What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers
#388Speak for yourself.
Re: What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers
#389There is one major difference from previous technological advancements: AI is going to hit many if not most sectors at the same time.
And it's not like hitting just one sector has ever been gentle: machines entering manufacturing caused an 80 years slump in British occupation rates and salaries.
Machines entering agricultural fields by the end of 1800s caused a similar slump in work conditions in Europe that really ended by the 1960s/1970s (depending on the country).
Automation + AI will keep taking more blue collar jobs at speed while also taking more and more knowledge workers out of jobs.
Seriously, at no point in history we've seen a single technology threatening so many sectors at the same time.
And people telling you "but the workers always recovered" keep ignoring that those recoveries sound good when they were not the ones impacted, and that these recoveries can take a lifetime.
Re: What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers
#390I've often felt my job as a programmer has often been to automate myself (and others) out of my job. But I've always felt in control of that. I suppose there's some cosmic justice to the fact that it's now being done to me.
Serious question though - how are they going with that? In reality, I see a lot of the current unhappiness in the Tech industry is being triggered by their pointy haired bosses wasting millions on their failed AI strategies only to embark on more failing AI strategies.
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