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There's a huge oversupply of candidates because humanities is 'exciting' and thus will attract a certain number of people regardless of how bad the conditions a
by philk 17y ago
There's a huge oversupply of candidates because humanities is 'exciting' and thus will attract a certain number of people regardless of how bad the conditions are.
Ultimately the less glamorous a job/career and the higher the barrier to entry the better the conditions.
(This is one of the reasons why businesses are often the best way to make money; it's an unpleasant and uncertain slog which few are willing to take on and navigate).
- rdtsc 17y ago> There's a huge oversupply of candidates because humanities is 'exciting' and thus will attract a certain number of people regardless of how bad the conditions are. I often wonder how much of the 'exciting' part is actually 'math was too hard so any hard sciences are out of the question'. Some students know for sure what they love and want, but some are in the undecided major for 2 years and then are forced to pick. The decision they make sometimes is influenced by their level of proficiency in the subject not by the love of the subject itself.
- exit 17y agomaybe there's just an oversupply of human beings in general.
- nfnaaron 17y agoTo put that another way: The average level of talent in people is average. We've nailed average in the first world, automating or off-shoring much of what the average person can do out of existence. What are we going to do with all of us average people?
- codexon 17y agoWhat are we going to do with all of us average people? The answer is of course obvious. Roll the dice and start your own business in the hopes that you can become the exploiter instead of the exploited. The owners in a business are the only ones who cannot be outsourced.
- nostrademons 17y agoThat doesn't really solve the problem. The average business fails. The bigger question is "how to not be useless?" Useful people will do well in the market whether they're an employee or an entrepreneur. Useless people, by definition, fail whether they're an employee or an entrepreneur. If you can figure out how to build skills & assets that other people want - which is much harder than simply starting a business - then you'll always be in demand.
- nfnaaron 17y agoI wasn't very clear in my question or its context. What I meant was, people with average ability have been able to sustain themselves for thousands of years doing subsistence tasks. Until sometime in the 19th century, most Americans dug holes in the ground and dropped seeds in them, hung around, and then dug out the result later. In the 20th century an American of average ability could sustain themselves doing office work or industrial labor. Beginning sometime in the late 20th century, the average American seems (to me at least) to be less and less needed in the modern American economy. Jobs are automated or off-shored. What do we as a society do about/with those "useless" people? It's a lot of people. Or am I too pessimistic?
- 17y ago