4 ms·

I'd be interested to ask Mark about the tier between "brick and mortar" and "digital." Sometimes even engineers get sick and need a doctor. Or sue each other an

I'd be interested to ask Mark about the tier between "brick and mortar" and "digital." Sometimes even engineers get sick and need a doctor. Or sue each other and need lawyers. Or remodel their home and need a contractor. It's nice when these people are smart, and fortunately many are, even if they never write code. It's still ridiculously hard to get into medical school--our doctors are the kids who got straight As in university. Perhaps that's an extreme example, but there are many industries that do not have "the intelligence sucked out" in a human asset notion, though perhaps in another 10 years big data will write prescriptions.

rdl 14y ago
Doctors are protected by a powerful union which slows change, but even medicine has a lot of non-MDs doing more and more (PA, NP, various types of tech, etc.). Lawyers are a good example -- protected by a (not as powerful) union, but more and more of the "digital" parts of law are becoming free (useful legal advice, services like legal zoom, etc.), or global markets (e discovery, etc.)
netcan 14y ago
I think the best way to think about this is rate and direction of change. Even in these professions that are starting with a high base of smarts in "brick and mortar", the ratio of "digital smarts"/"brick and mortar smarts" is growing. Where are big improvements in diagnosis going to come from? Smarter GPs or smarter diagnostic tools? It doesn't mean GPs will get less smart or that there will be fewer of them, but the ratio is going to grow.
- techdmn 14y ago
  Indeed. We may not have full "Artificial Intelligence" in the short term, but longer term (not much longer) it seems like a bad idea to bet against the computer revolution. There was a time not so long ago when people thought computers would never be better than people at /chess/.
autophil 14y ago
True. I'll add that tradespeople like plumbers, electricians and dentists will always have enough work. I'll bet that on average they make more than most programmers do.
- Lost_BiomedE 14y ago
  A huge chunk of dentists will be taken out due to the biology revolution, which has been fueled by computers. Actually, I am really surprised that the dentists have lasted this long.

rdl 14y ago

Doctors are protected by a powerful union which slows change, but even medicine has a lot of non-MDs doing more and more (PA, NP, various types of tech, etc.). Lawyers are a good example -- protected by a (not as powerful) union, but more and more of the "digital" parts of law are becoming free (useful legal advice, services like legal zoom, etc.), or global markets (e discovery, etc.)

netcan 14y ago

I think the best way to think about this is rate and direction of change. Even in these professions that are starting with a high base of smarts in "brick and mortar", the ratio of "digital smarts"/"brick and mortar smarts" is growing. Where are big improvements in diagnosis going to come from? Smarter GPs or smarter diagnostic tools? It doesn't mean GPs will get less smart or that there will be fewer of them, but the ratio is going to grow.

techdmn 14y ago
Indeed. We may not have full "Artificial Intelligence" in the short term, but longer term (not much longer) it seems like a bad idea to bet against the computer revolution. There was a time not so long ago when people thought computers would never be better than people at /chess/.

autophil 14y ago

True. I'll add that tradespeople like plumbers, electricians and dentists will always have enough work. I'll bet that on average they make more than most programmers do.

Lost_BiomedE 14y ago
A huge chunk of dentists will be taken out due to the biology revolution, which has been fueled by computers. Actually, I am really surprised that the dentists have lasted this long.