What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves • Hacker News Board

Re: What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

#31

Post by array_key_first » Sun, Mar 22, 2026, 10:17 PM UTC

stephen_cagle wrote: post #8

I'm somewhat skeptical of this "enter the trades" movement. Actually, I am more skeptical of that statement than I am of LLM's replacing white collar work in general. I think parts of coding are being replaced quickly because they are the parts that don't require discernment. Trades likely contain just as many automatable and just as many discernment parts as white collar work. At this moment in history, the automata…

Robots are expensive, software is not. I can instantly duplicate software 1 million times and run it in parallel, I can't just produce 1 million robots. Physical world is always harder.

Even if we get robots who can, say, build roads start to end, there is still a HUGE gap between that and it actually being used. There is a hard floor, too. Robots are made of physical things, physical things have scarcity, and there's no way around that to our knowledge. Even if you can build the robot for 1 cent, the material cost will still exist.

Re: What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

#32

Post by alex43578 » Sun, Mar 22, 2026, 10:17 PM UTC

denkmoon wrote: post #23

time0ut wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Optimistically, I hope it filters out the people who were only interested in it for the money. When I was in school, decades ago now, very few people went into CS compared to other majors. Everyone I knew going into it did it because they loved it. I would have done it regardless of the career opportunities because I want to build stuff. Interviewing candidates over the years since then, my experience has been there…

Having an industry’s labour supplied only by those inherently passionate about it is a great way to crush wages and working conditions. Look at what companies like Blizzard get away with because their employees just want to make video games at their favourite dev studio. While they’re a pain in the ass sometimes, I welcome the devs who are only here for the cash.

This is totally leaving out the supply and demand aspect. People like the idea of making games more than working on the plumbing of some accounts payable software, so Blizzard can pay less and treat worse than NicheBoringFinanceCo.

Re: What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

#33

Post by margorczynski » Sun, Mar 22, 2026, 10:18 PM UTC

The "go into trades" thing has two major flaws:

1) The supply of work will skyrocket when everyone will flock there for work

2) Demand will plummet as the white collar people who bought these services will loose their jobs and income

And of course if robotics will get solved to an acceptable degree most of those jobs will also get mostly automated.

Re: What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

#34

Post by ddorian43 » Sun, Mar 22, 2026, 10:18 PM UTC

denkmoon wrote: post #23

time0ut wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Optimistically, I hope it filters out the people who were only interested in it for the money. When I was in school, decades ago now, very few people went into CS compared to other majors. Everyone I knew going into it did it because they loved it. I would have done it regardless of the career opportunities because I want to build stuff. Interviewing candidates over the years since then, my experience has been there…

Having an industry’s labour supplied only by those inherently passionate about it is a great way to crush wages and working conditions. Look at what companies like Blizzard get away with because their employees just want to make video games at their favourite dev studio. While they’re a pain in the ass sometimes, I welcome the devs who are only here for the cash.

Where are the gamedevs in it for the money?

Re: What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

#35

Post by chromacity » Sun, Mar 22, 2026, 10:23 PM UTC

striped_hash wrote: post #4

I don’t think kids should be insulating from AI. The examples in this article suggest for example that some people are dropping out of college and going into trade schools. I get that society needs electricians and construction workers and new software graduates are finding it difficult to get jobs. But having had a moderately successful career building software, I tend to think there is a lot of scope for the $40 tr…

The prevailing sentiment on HN is that AI will make coders 10x more productive, but that we'll all keep our jobs and salaries, with the possible exception of people who don't embrace AI quickly enough.

But let me ask you this: has AI made life easier for illustrators, book authors, or musicians? They were affected by the technology earlier on. If they don't embrace AI, they face increased competition from cheaply-made products that the average consumer can't distinguish from the "real" thing. But if they embrace it, they can't differentiate themselves from the cheaply-produced content! In fact, for artists, the best strategy may be to speak out very vocally against AI, reject it early on, and build a following of like-minded consumers.

Re: What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

#36

Post by bigiain » Sun, Mar 22, 2026, 10:27 PM UTC

Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #18

I am not quite sure with the controversy at archive.ph/(today) but If this may help anybody, I have used single-file to download from archive.ph and uploaded it to github https://serjaimelannister.github.io/wsj-article/ and I have also uploaded the github link on archive.org for persistence/archival purposes. https://web.archive.org/web/20260322213950/https://serjaimel... I hope that this might help some people and I…

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47474255

Cloudflare flags archive.today as "C&C/Botnet"; no longer resolves via 1.1.1.2

Re: What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

#37

Post by alephnerd » Sun, Mar 22, 2026, 10:30 PM UTC

ramesh31 wrote: post #2

I'll say invest totally in domain knowledge now. The value of knowing how to invert a binary tree from memory has dropped to approximately zero. Web development as we knew it for the past 20 years is completely dead as an entry level trade. The power is shifting to people with useful knowledge and expertise that isn't about twiddling bits.

[flagged]

Re: What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

#38

Post by bigiain » Sun, Mar 22, 2026, 10:31 PM UTC

stephen_cagle wrote: post #8

I'm somewhat skeptical of this "enter the trades" movement. Actually, I am more skeptical of that statement than I am of LLM's replacing white collar work in general. I think parts of coding are being replaced quickly because they are the parts that don't require discernment. Trades likely contain just as many automatable and just as many discernment parts as white collar work. At this moment in history, the automata…

Hasn't the US already minimised the cost of all the construction work that are "the parts that don't require discernment" to minimum wage who-cares-if-they're-documented-or-not day workers?

Re: What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

#39

Post by travisdrake » Sun, Mar 22, 2026, 10:31 PM UTC

ramesh31 wrote: post #2

I'll say invest totally in domain knowledge now. The value of knowing how to invert a binary tree from memory has dropped to approximately zero. Web development as we knew it for the past 20 years is completely dead as an entry level trade. The power is shifting to people with useful knowledge and expertise that isn't about twiddling bits.

I think this is true today, especially with complex domains, but I foresee a future where more and more walls fall. If you are in college now, go deep on a domain. If you are entering in 10 years, I have no idea.

Re: What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

#40

Post by tjwebbnorfolk » Sun, Mar 22, 2026, 10:31 PM UTC

margorczynski wrote: post #33

The "go into trades" thing has two major flaws: 1) The supply of work will skyrocket when everyone will flock there for work 2) Demand will plummet as the white collar people who bought these services will loose their jobs and income And of course if robotics will get solved to an acceptable degree most of those jobs will also get mostly automated.

Pipes don't care about how much you would like to spend on it. They will leak when they are ready to leak.