11 ms·

When it's your way of life that is threatened, it's hard to heed that lesson.

by city41 10y ago

65827 10y ago
My way of life was just upended in October by machine learning, I didn't fight it instead I just switched careers. Not sure why others are so unwilling to do the same. I think this is a very important point, in the past illiteracy used to be defined as people who couldn't read, in the future I think it's going to come to mean the people who can't or are unwilling to adapt and learn, we'll look down on them with pity like we used to all the people who couldn't read back in the 70s.
- icebraining 10y ago
  I'm curious, what did you do before?
  - jes5199 10y ago
    software engineer
- grogenaut 10y ago
  Also curious. How far out did you see it coming?
- rosser 10y ago
  If you're on HN, it's very, very likely that you have a skill set, and knowledge base that makes career-changing fairly easy (relatively speaking, anyway). If you've worked in a factory all your life, and suddenly all the factories around where you — and your well-established, extended family — live are closed down, or moved overseas, or whatever, you're probably going to be a bit less sanguine about the situation. The myopia of tech people will probably never not astound me.
  - chrischen 10y ago
    It should be the government's job to provide an ecosystem that provides jobs and opportunity to its citizens, and when it fails its the governments job to pay for the shortcomings.l directly. Expecting the government to patch the syptoms of the problem doesn't fix anything, myopic we are or not.
    - wmccullough 10y ago
      > "It should be the government's job to provide an ecosystem that provides jobs and opportunity to its citizens, and when it fails its the governments job to pay for the shortcomings.l directly." > "Expecting the government to patch the syptoms of the problem doesn't fix anything" So care to explain that a bit better? I think you just contradicted yourself. The government has no business anywhere near the job market. Go read about the subsidized corn market if you want to see their brand of job creation in action. For too long we've expected the government to take care of the needs of society when we should have been doing it as citizens.
      - crdoconnor 10y ago
        >The government has no business anywhere near the job market. Go read about the subsidized corn market if you want to see their brand of job creation in action. Or drive through the Lincoln Tunnel or use electricity from the Hoover Dam. Or fly from LaGuardia to LAX. >For too long we've expected the government to take care of the needs of society Maybe corporate welfare should be cut to the bone first.
      - chrischen 10y ago
        If government bears direct financial burden (paying for the fact they cannot be employed) of failing to provide useful employment, then the feedback mechanism is in place for it to be incentivized to create jobs.
      - sjg007 10y ago
        Well the govt will subsidize for votes regardles.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- rhizome 10y ago
  Not sure why others are so unwilling to do the same. "Unwilling." Going back into your comment history it appears you have had some struggles along these lines, so maybe ixnay the condescending illiteracy angle. Did you used to have any previous HN accounts, maybe from the period where you were being "upended?" Probably some gold in there, too.
pjc50 10y ago
There's a bunch of people living on coastlines whose way of life is also threatened by continuing to mine coal, but most of them aren't in America.
jimnotgym 10y ago
It is interesting that Elon Musk thinks electricity generation from utility companies is safe from his products. In fact he expects usage to go up, as people move to electric heating
- rhizome 10y ago
  Where's the interesting part?
Gravityloss 10y ago
I understood the lesson a completely different one: that those whose jobs are destroyed by some larger event, should be supported?
org3432 10y ago
Right, our way of life is living on land and not underwater as well. :)

When it's your way of life that is threatened, it's hard to heed that lesson.

by city41 10y ago

When it's your way of life that is threatened, it's hard to heed that lesson.

65827 10y ago

My way of life was just upended in October by machine learning, I didn't fight it instead I just switched careers. Not sure why others are so unwilling to do the same. I think this is a very important point, in the past illiteracy used to be defined as people who couldn't read, in the future I think it's going to come to mean the people who can't or are unwilling to adapt and learn, we'll look down on them with pity like we used to all the people who couldn't read back in the 70s.

icebraining 10y ago
I'm curious, what did you do before?
- jes5199 10y ago
  software engineer
grogenaut 10y ago
Also curious. How far out did you see it coming?
rosser 10y ago
If you're on HN, it's very, very likely that you have a skill set, and knowledge base that makes career-changing fairly easy (relatively speaking, anyway). If you've worked in a factory all your life, and suddenly all the factories around where you — and your well-established, extended family — live are closed down, or moved overseas, or whatever, you're probably going to be a bit less sanguine about the situation. The myopia of tech people will probably never not astound me.
- chrischen 10y ago
  It should be the government's job to provide an ecosystem that provides jobs and opportunity to its citizens, and when it fails its the governments job to pay for the shortcomings.l directly. Expecting the government to patch the syptoms of the problem doesn't fix anything, myopic we are or not.
  - wmccullough 10y ago
    > "It should be the government's job to provide an ecosystem that provides jobs and opportunity to its citizens, and when it fails its the governments job to pay for the shortcomings.l directly." > "Expecting the government to patch the syptoms of the problem doesn't fix anything" So care to explain that a bit better? I think you just contradicted yourself. The government has no business anywhere near the job market. Go read about the subsidized corn market if you want to see their brand of job creation in action. For too long we've expected the government to take care of the needs of society when we should have been doing it as citizens.
    - crdoconnor 10y ago
      >The government has no business anywhere near the job market. Go read about the subsidized corn market if you want to see their brand of job creation in action. Or drive through the Lincoln Tunnel or use electricity from the Hoover Dam. Or fly from LaGuardia to LAX. >For too long we've expected the government to take care of the needs of society Maybe corporate welfare should be cut to the bone first.
    - chrischen 10y ago
      If government bears direct financial burden (paying for the fact they cannot be employed) of failing to provide useful employment, then the feedback mechanism is in place for it to be incentivized to create jobs.
    - sjg007 10y ago
      Well the govt will subsidize for votes regardles.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
rhizome 10y ago
Not sure why others are so unwilling to do the same. "Unwilling." Going back into your comment history it appears you have had some struggles along these lines, so maybe ixnay the condescending illiteracy angle. Did you used to have any previous HN accounts, maybe from the period where you were being "upended?" Probably some gold in there, too.

pjc50 10y ago

There's a bunch of people living on coastlines whose way of life is also threatened by continuing to mine coal, but most of them aren't in America.

jimnotgym 10y ago

It is interesting that Elon Musk thinks electricity generation from utility companies is safe from his products. In fact he expects usage to go up, as people move to electric heating

rhizome 10y ago
Where's the interesting part?

Gravityloss 10y ago

I understood the lesson a completely different one: that those whose jobs are destroyed by some larger event, should be supported?

org3432 10y ago

Right, our way of life is living on land and not underwater as well. :)