>I mean I can imagine that a Blacksmith was probably safely a Blacksmith for life back in the day, but is even that really true? I'm guessing in most countries

>I mean I can imagine that a Blacksmith was probably safely a Blacksmith for life back in the day, but is even that really true? I'm guessing in most countries a Blacksmith (a toolmaker if you will) was usually self-employed. Of course they were "in-for-life", nobody was there to fire them. But this doesn't mean that it was easy going, they could still have a bad economy or some other blacksmith underbidding on price (or offering much better quality, marketind, whatever). You can open your own toolmaker shop as a programmer. Your success won't depend on whether your boss likes you, but whether you can sell your tools, whether you can provide the appropriate quality, and whether you're not underbid by a large competition.