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There were no doubt quite a few nail makers pre-industrial revolution that took pride in making consistent, quality nails. That work was utterly and completely

There were no doubt quite a few nail makers pre-industrial revolution that took pride in making consistent, quality nails. That work was utterly and completely obliterated by the industrial revolution. There may be a few remaining nail makers, producing nails with an extremely niche design, but not many. So goes those jobs our lifetime as well

gumby 4y ago
The Unabomber was notable for manufacturing his own screws, so I'm not sure how many artisanal nail makers remain. In those days nails were re-used, it was such a pain to make them.
- LegitShady 4y ago
  there are still companies that make cut or square nails - and machines that make them are old.
  - gumby 4y ago
    Sure, but they are made by machines.
readthenotes1 4y ago
Back in the day, I'd call in someone from the secretarial pool to take this sentence down and type it in for me...
sportslife 4y ago
To complete this idea, old nails are better at holding than modern nails in at least some applications and are required for some restoration work. I remember reading (but can't find) a church-restoration project report mentioning it, but more can be read here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30421682 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30421682
e63f67dd-065b 4y ago
I think a better analogy is that pre-photography there were many portrait drawers who took pride in drawing good portraits for their clients. Then photography came, and the entire industry died a sudden and miserable death. Portraits still get drawn, but not many, and certainly not for the sake of preserving what somebody looks like.
- 7speter 4y ago
  There were a lot more opportunities available when photography took over from portrait drawing than Amazon fulfillment centers
nirvdrum 4y ago
What's the solution when so much knowledge work is upended at once? When manufacturing jobs were lost, we callously told people to go to college to learn to learn IT. Whether it's art, code, marketing, or other applied knowledge work, there's a mad dash to reshape all of those. And the sales pitch isn't that it's going to let us work less and equitably reap the rewards of productivity (well, I suppose if you lose your job you get to work less). It's that as a business you can do more with less to increase profitability. Quality might take a hit, but there's an inflection point for that. If sales drop but you reduce your labor costs enough, you still come out ahead. What field are all of these nail makers supposed to switch to this time?
- scotty79 4y ago
  Universal basic income is always the answer. Since progress bringsuch unpredictability to labor market we need to detach survival from labor so people can survive while they are figuring the stuff out.
  - LesZedCB 4y ago
    universal basic income is not sustainable in the same way minimum wage was not sustainable, looking as how even $15/hr isn't enough to cover rent basically anywhere where they actually pay $15/hr.
    - Kelamir 4y ago
      Universal basic rent :)
    - scotty79 4y ago
      > minimum wage was not sustainable I'm not sure what do you intend this word to mean. Minimum wage is sustained in many countries for many years. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/minimum-wage-by-country https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/minimum-w... > looking as how even $15/hr isn't enough to cover rent basically anywhere where they actually pay $15/hr That's a bit different problem. What UBI could do is let people migrate away from very expensive places because they would no longer fear they'll become destitute if they risk not being able to get a job in cheaper place.
ruszki 4y ago
There are still companies which provides you consistent, quality nails. Just ordinary nails without niche design. They still have to use manual labour to check and investigate each nail one-by-one. Of course, you won’t get those in your local hardware shop, and they are terribly expensive. The difference compared to old times is, that they still sell the cheap Chinese nails, they just add a layer of very expensive quality control.

gumby 4y ago

The Unabomber was notable for manufacturing his own screws, so I'm not sure how many artisanal nail makers remain. In those days nails were re-used, it was such a pain to make them.

LegitShady 4y ago
there are still companies that make cut or square nails - and machines that make them are old.
- gumby 4y ago
  Sure, but they are made by machines.

readthenotes1 4y ago

Back in the day, I'd call in someone from the secretarial pool to take this sentence down and type it in for me...

sportslife 4y ago

To complete this idea, old nails are better at holding than modern nails in at least some applications and are required for some restoration work. I remember reading (but can't find) a church-restoration project report mentioning it, but more can be read here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30421682 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30421682

e63f67dd-065b 4y ago

I think a better analogy is that pre-photography there were many portrait drawers who took pride in drawing good portraits for their clients. Then photography came, and the entire industry died a sudden and miserable death. Portraits still get drawn, but not many, and certainly not for the sake of preserving what somebody looks like.

7speter 4y ago
There were a lot more opportunities available when photography took over from portrait drawing than Amazon fulfillment centers

nirvdrum 4y ago

What's the solution when so much knowledge work is upended at once? When manufacturing jobs were lost, we callously told people to go to college to learn to learn IT. Whether it's art, code, marketing, or other applied knowledge work, there's a mad dash to reshape all of those. And the sales pitch isn't that it's going to let us work less and equitably reap the rewards of productivity (well, I suppose if you lose your job you get to work less). It's that as a business you can do more with less to increase profitability. Quality might take a hit, but there's an inflection point for that. If sales drop but you reduce your labor costs enough, you still come out ahead. What field are all of these nail makers supposed to switch to this time?

scotty79 4y ago
Universal basic income is always the answer. Since progress bringsuch unpredictability to labor market we need to detach survival from labor so people can survive while they are figuring the stuff out.
- LesZedCB 4y ago
  universal basic income is not sustainable in the same way minimum wage was not sustainable, looking as how even $15/hr isn't enough to cover rent basically anywhere where they actually pay $15/hr.
  - Kelamir 4y ago
    Universal basic rent :)
  - scotty79 4y ago
    > minimum wage was not sustainable I'm not sure what do you intend this word to mean. Minimum wage is sustained in many countries for many years. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/minimum-wage-by-country https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/minimum-w... > looking as how even $15/hr isn't enough to cover rent basically anywhere where they actually pay $15/hr That's a bit different problem. What UBI could do is let people migrate away from very expensive places because they would no longer fear they'll become destitute if they risk not being able to get a job in cheaper place.

ruszki 4y ago

There are still companies which provides you consistent, quality nails. Just ordinary nails without niche design. They still have to use manual labour to check and investigate each nail one-by-one. Of course, you won’t get those in your local hardware shop, and they are terribly expensive. The difference compared to old times is, that they still sell the cheap Chinese nails, they just add a layer of very expensive quality control.