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I believe this is exactly the kind of high-paying job that is difficult for AI to replace.
by LzeYing 3mo ago
I believe this is exactly the kind of high-paying job that is difficult for AI to replace.
- stouset 3mo agoSure but it’s also a microscopically small component of the country’s overall economy.
- zuzululu 3mo agocanada's economy is roughly slightly below Mississipi with increasing amount of migration from third world countries putting strain on its resources and with almost no plans other than to tax the already overstretched middle class its almost the exact dilemma in Western Europe except the only saving grace is military security is guaranteed by its larger and richer neighbor
- sanswork 3mo agoCanada's GDP is $2.2t vs $165b for Mississippi. Immigration rate is decreasing.
- zuzululu 3mo agothanks for bringing this up and I have to reiterate the importance of per capita which is something that is curiously ignored in these discussions but I'm sure you know the difference from just measuring GDP alone and just forgot about it Canada's nominal GDP per capita is roughly $53,800 USD, which places it nearly on par with Mississippi also Canada admits people from third world countries at a per-capita rate roughly four times higher than the United States, with none of the enforcement agencies capable of tackling illegal immigration which a lot of this demographic engages in. It's difficult for ICE now imagine Canada which has no such enforcement on the same scale my point is that Canada has a smaller economy but imports more from the third world than its much richer and powerful neighbor. this is not a sustainable arrangement.
- cwillu 3mo agoIf you don't say the words “per capita”, you don't get credit for having said them.
- watwut 3mo agoAnd still, Canada has higher living standards, better healthcare, school system, criminal justice and lower murder rates. No, Canada is not as poor as Missisipy.
- jollyllama 3mo ago> It's difficult for ICE now imagine Canada which has no such enforcement on the same scale A massive federal agency rounding up illegal immigrants actually isn't that effective, as has been seen in the USA. What actually works is making it impossible to find a job or housing without proof of citizenship - which is being done in Canada BTW
- zuzululu 3mo agocnada does not make employment or housing impossible without proof of citizenship there are massive illegal labor market especially in the construction food service jobs. Also the check is minimal and poorly enforced or tracked. It's the same situation in rentals there are routine subletting via cash one of my partner so again the enforcement mechanisms fall apart here and you will see this to be a repeating pattern throughout canadian society where there are laws but are hardly enforced or resources spent equally. if illegal presence has almost no chance of interior enforcement, then overstaying or working illegally becomes a rational bet. If arrests, detention, removals, and employer raids become credible again, behavior changes that's the whole point of ICE raids they know they can't deport millions of people but to change the behavior of the demographic that they are targeting. This is something that Canada neither has the political capital to pursue.
- ipaddr 3mo agoCanada ranks 4th. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/how-canada-would-rank-as-the-51st-state/ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/how-canada-would-rank-as-th...
- physicalecon 3mo ago[dead]
- wasabi991011 3mo ago> canada's economy is roughly slightly below Mississipi No, it isn't. Not true in absolute terms, not true per capita, not true adjusted for purchasing power.
- vlovich123 3mo agoIt is true per capita in USD dollars due to the weak Canadian dollar. Mississippi has better purchasing power
- zuzululu 3mo agoabsolutely. its the "poorest" state too
- hluska 3mo ago[flagged]
- wasabi991011 3mo agoNo, it isn't, at least according to here [1] (data from worldbank). This is in nominal USD as almost all calculations of GDP. If you compare by purchasing power, Canada likely pulls out ahead since Canada has a lower price level than the US [2] (can't find Mississippi-specific price level). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_GDP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territ... section "U.S. states by GDP per capita if they were sovereign states" [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchasing_power_parity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchasing_power_parity
- vlovich123 3mo agoYou can’t just say “no it isn’t” when your own link disagrees with you. From your link per capita GDP for Mississippi $55,877 in 2025 compared with $60,305 in 2026 for Canada [1]. That seems pretty similar. My point was that when the Canadian dollar is weak GDP in USD decreases while when it’s strong GDP increases without anything about the country’s output changing - that’s the challenging of comparing by normalizing against a single currency. I’ll let you do your own purchasing power math but Mississippi has significantly cheaper prices as part of America than Canada. Canada has a stronger safety net but that isn’t about purchasing power to much other than health insurance being baked into your taxes. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Canada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Canada
- bparsons 3mo agoThe Canada hater has logged on.
- seemaze 3mo agoMechanical timepieces are a luxury item, and these students are essentially artists in training. Wrist time was solved in the late 1970's with the commoditization of quartz movements. These 'jobs' will get replaced by AI at approximately the same pace as your local sculptor.
- Analemma_ 3mo agoI don't know if watchmaking is one of them, but there are a bunch of traditional crafts which are actually approaching a danger point because there aren't enough up-and-coming acolytes in the discipline to replace them, even though the craft still enjoys enough popular support to have a thriving economy. Anecdotally, I see enough mechanical watches on wrists and in duty-free shops that I imagine there's enough of a pipeline there for at least one school. Much like vinyl records it doesn't appear to actually be going away even if it's superfluous.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- WillAdams 3mo agoGood example of that is engraving: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH3MtWln2Og https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH3MtWln2Og (ages ago, I was in touch with a person who described himself as "the last hand engraver in New York City" when considering an apprenticeship --- couldn't commit to the move --- always wondered if he found a successor)
- LzeYing 3mo agoCome to think of it, it makes sense; in this day and age, every industry is evolving so rapidly that the future remains quite uncertain.
- numbersfollow67 3mo agoUnless they’re replaced by humans controlled by AI(look at the various research for BCIs or for gene therapy that allows for the possibility for you to be controlled by radio frequencies), then they’re very easily replaced.
- matheusmoreira 3mo ago> gene therapy that allows for the possibility for you to be controlled by radio frequencies What. Can you cite this research?
- annzabelle 3mo agoI have a friend who got an English and Creative Writing degree from a liberal arts college, and then immediately went back to trade school for band instrument repair. It's not particularly lucrative, as trades go, but it does seem a lot more future proof than most careers.
- LzeYing 3mo agoHaha, so you're going to do something AI can't replace, right?
- annzabelle 3mo agoThinking about it. I'm pretty attracted to the idea of a career with some kind of protectionist licensing system, like doctor or actuary, but that may just be staving off the inevitable. Might teach high school. After I got laid off in the US, I moved to a mountain town in New Zealand planning on being a ski lift operator while I think about the future, but got a software developer job by accident instead.
- loloquwowndueo 3mo agoTaxis had a protectionist system. Took a single competitor with deep pockets and disregard for the system to upend the whole thing.
- selimthegrim 3mo agoI still get emails from NZ begging for people to come fill IT jobs
- annzabelle 3mo agoIt's great for a couple years, but compensation is so much lower here I wouldn't do it long term, except if you marry a local or are independently wealthy. I make a third of what I did in the US, and my job in the US was in a medium cost of living area and wasn't a startup or big tech. Housing costs about the same amount.
- jameshart 3mo agoI am literally wearing a watch right now that was produced without any of these artisans’ specialized labor and which boasts among its features access to AI. In a very real sense I have replaced use of the skills of watchmakers with AI. Sorry about that. To be fair most watchmakers were already put out of work by quartz oscillators and integrated circuits in the 1980s.
- soperj 3mo agoyou need AI to tell the time?
- rvba 3mo agoSuprising amount of people do not know how to read time from the "classical" watches and clocks (those with hands). Reason is very simple - they dont own clocks with hands when theh are kids.
- netsharc 3mo agoBut... this is a condition that can be changed within 1 minute? (From "do not know" to "know"). Sure it takes longer to get proficient, but learning it is quicker than learning e.g. Roman numerals or how to tie a necktie.
- Cthulhu_ 3mo agoNot knowing is fine, but a refusal to learn is not. I think that's the major issue with first social media / short attention span content, modern media over-explaining stuff, and nowadays with AI. Even if they get an answer from AI they won't take it in, just pass it on / read it out / apply it to whatever they're doing now and promptly forget it. (I'm generalizing / being a cranky old man and I'm not even that old)
- jameshart 3mo agoNo? And not what I said. But an AI provider absolutely got some of the money I might otherwise have spent on a clockwork watch.
- keiferski 3mo agoBasically anything that is a luxury good is probably safe from AI. If people are buying it for status or high performance reasons, they aren’t going to pick the low end AI slop version.
- ricardobayes 3mo agoI don't know how high paying it is, although I can see how it can be, especially given there is a shortage of watchmakers in the developed world, even in Switzerland.
- Cthulhu_ 3mo agoIs that because of a lack of interest or because the requirements and education required are just very high level and specialised?
- Cthulhu_ 3mo agoYes, and it's a great example of an industry that was completely decimated by automation - you can get a functional watch for a fiver, whereas back when every watch was handmade and a de-facto inheritance piece. But bespoke, handmade, high value, low volume stuff is still around.
- gleenn 3mo agoCorrect, AI will not replathe 3 high-paying watch maker jobs that exist. You are the best kind of correct, technically. But you are distracting from the fact that most people aren't doing anything even remotely physical related in the space that some people posit will be decimated by AI: white-collar jobs where you are a keyboard jockey all day.
- fennecfoxy 3mo agoWhy? Many modern watch parts are CNC machined, often the finishing is done by hand such as zaratsu polishing - but even that is a repetitive motion that can be mechanised. I would not be surprised if given enough time even what we have today - a decent VLA model + some other specialised models, 6-axis CNC machine, an SMD pick and place etc would be capable of designing, manufacturing and assembling a mechanical watch.