I’ve tried not having an engaging job, that’s how I know I wanted to kill myself dude… I’ve had to do boring work before. Several years in fact. Do you know what effect the words “think less” have on someone who hates being a mindless drone?
Understand that some people just aren’t compatible with factory work, or the hospital equivalent of factory work that you suggested. I’m not wired that way. Good for you if you are.
AI is deleting options for these people. Young people growing up right now will all have to flip burgers at mcdonalds or change bedsheets for patients or do other similar menial work while us old fucks hold on at all cost to the jobs people actually want to do and our bosses will refuse to hire junior level employees for us to train. Because useful human brains are expensive to train and untrained ones are less useful than whatever AI can hallucinate up. Education won’t solve this either, you need several years on the job to be more useful than an AI agent now and that number keeps going up. And that’s going to happen in most fields. Bonus point: eventually even doctors aren’t safe. AI can’t be liable for patient well-being, but doctors can be made to “see” 100 patients a day using AI. Doctors will be expected to just sign off on everything unless they can see an error immediately. Teachers are also getting pretty redundant. If AI creates the assignments, AI writes the students’ answers and then AI grades it… Why do we even need teachers?
Did I? These are important jobs that are much more meaningful than what you’re doing now. Calling it janitorial work or factory work is not only ignorant but also arrogant and demeaning to those people.
Being a mindless drone is what you are right now working for a company. You’re an AI in fleshy form.
Being stuck in dead-end office jobs working like robots is draining people and society. AI sucks and it is gonna suck for a while, but everyone can adapt, including you. So yes, take a course, learn something new and take charge. Even now you’re asking me for what you should do with the rest of your life. You should be able to figure that out. And if you’re not able, then yes, ask Claude or something. AI is coming, whether you like it or not, so you can either go with it or forever fight an uphill battle and become even more miserable than with these “janitor” jobs of yours.
These are important jobs that are much more meaningful than what you’re doing now
You don’t really know what exactly I’m doing now, but that’s beside the point. I never said they were unimportant, I said there’s not enough challenge to keep my brain occupied. I have pretty severe ADHD. If I don’t get to do something new and interesting nearly every day, I’ll start performing very poorly soon. If the entire planet was dependent on me doing the same exact thing for 8 hours a day and even if I knew it… Well in a few months, we’d all be dead. It wouldn’t be unimportant, it would just not be meaningfully challenging for me and I’d get complacent. It’s how my brain works and even medication doesn’t help a lot. In my first job, I helped displace 2-3 tons of CO2 emissions per day by fixing used laptops slated for landfill, giving them what I’d hope was years of new life. It was great for a while, but it became meaningless for me because it was too easy. 2 years in, I knew that if I had to do it for much longer, I would never recover mentally. I didn’t make it to 3 years at that job.
Being a mindless drone is what you are right now working for a company. You’re an AI in fleshy form.
I mean you don’t really know my situation, I’m actually the sole employee at my company. I decide when, how much and who to work for. I have a few favorite clients that know to give me tough problems rather than boring, repetitive things.
Being stuck in dead-end office jobs working like robots is draining people and society
Well, some people don’t want to be lumberjacks or construction workers. Some prefer knowledge work. Those who get into it just for the money will feel drained, I’m sure. But I know a lot of people like myself who do it purely because they love a good problem to solve. I don’t think many of them would function well within normal “meaningful” jobs in the physical world over the long term.
So yes, take a course, learn something new and take charge.
My point was that anything you’d really need to take a course in, won’t be hiring new junior employees by the time you’re finished. Doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, writers, interpreters, artists are going to have their numbers thinned HARD. What we’ll have left for young people is manual labor, customer service, cleaning, etc. Jobs where employees become useful fairly quickly as far as the learning curve is concerned and people are paid low enough that they’re not worth replacing with machines. Tradies will have it safe for now, but I’m anticipating that there will be a LOT more competition for those jobs, particularly electricians because that’s less physically demanding and smelly than plumbing or construction. Which means wages in the trades are also going to go down, particularly for fresh employees.
Anyway, as I said before, I already have enough years of experience in my field that I likely still have a future in it. If I wasn’t raising a toddler alone as a single father, I could grind myself to early retirement in 10 years doing 200 hours a month, but currently I’m working more like 40 a month as a “mindless drone” and it’s enough to get by. It’s not me I’m worried about. I’m worried about other people who can’t handle doing boring work day in and day out.
You’re a software engineer. You told me in your first comment. So no, I absolutely know those jobs are more meaningful.
You can still do knowledge work without being a mindless fleshy AI. You don’t need to be a fucking lumberjack. Quit it with the straw man arguments. I will ignore them, so you’re wasting your own time writing them.
And it’s good that you’re worried about other people, but the arguments you make to get there are utter BS. People can and will adapt and there will not just be lumberjacks and electricians. Maybe challenge your mind with that before making such comments.
You’re a software engineer. You told me in your first comment. So no, I absolutely know those jobs are more meaningful.
You literally have no idea what projects I’ve worked on though. Hint: If I’m working on something in special needs care, I’m touching thousands of lives at once, not 10. But you probably equate me with the same people who develop online casinos or targeting systems for Palantir because I have the same job title.
You can still do knowledge work without being a mindless fleshy AI.
You want to call me mindless so much, I think you need to look into yourself. What do YOU do?
I don’t know how you can realize that the goal of the companies that own the AI you’re praising is the abolishment of human knowledge work altogether. Knowledge workers cost money. Look, even before the AI craze, the goal of nearly every company looking to make a profit has been to make work as boring and efficient as possible. I’ve been through it. People get reallocated to bite sized responsibility. Only do one thing and do it like a robot.
What kind of jobs do YOU think will exist in the future that are going to require any sort of complex thought? Because I can nearly guarantee that eventually, the doctors in your hospital will be robots, but the bedpan changers will be human. Nurses will be there to administer IVs and such, but shouldn’t have their own opinions.
And if you’re going to say that doctors, nurses, teachers, etc, are safe because those are government jobs not private company jobs… Well, with an aging populace and an already unsustainable pension system, the government’s gonna have to start saving money too.
Does it matter that AI can’t be held accountable and it makes mistakes a human could spot? No, because it’s significantly cheaper than paying a human that needs to pay rent and buy groceries. You just pay one human to take on the liability for the AI that replaced the other 10.
And you suggested… Janitorial work.
I’ve tried not having an engaging job, that’s how I know I wanted to kill myself dude… I’ve had to do boring work before. Several years in fact. Do you know what effect the words “think less” have on someone who hates being a mindless drone?
Understand that some people just aren’t compatible with factory work, or the hospital equivalent of factory work that you suggested. I’m not wired that way. Good for you if you are.
AI is deleting options for these people. Young people growing up right now will all have to flip burgers at mcdonalds or change bedsheets for patients or do other similar menial work while us old fucks hold on at all cost to the jobs people actually want to do and our bosses will refuse to hire junior level employees for us to train. Because useful human brains are expensive to train and untrained ones are less useful than whatever AI can hallucinate up. Education won’t solve this either, you need several years on the job to be more useful than an AI agent now and that number keeps going up. And that’s going to happen in most fields. Bonus point: eventually even doctors aren’t safe. AI can’t be liable for patient well-being, but doctors can be made to “see” 100 patients a day using AI. Doctors will be expected to just sign off on everything unless they can see an error immediately. Teachers are also getting pretty redundant. If AI creates the assignments, AI writes the students’ answers and then AI grades it… Why do we even need teachers?
Did I? These are important jobs that are much more meaningful than what you’re doing now. Calling it janitorial work or factory work is not only ignorant but also arrogant and demeaning to those people.
Being a mindless drone is what you are right now working for a company. You’re an AI in fleshy form.
Being stuck in dead-end office jobs working like robots is draining people and society. AI sucks and it is gonna suck for a while, but everyone can adapt, including you. So yes, take a course, learn something new and take charge. Even now you’re asking me for what you should do with the rest of your life. You should be able to figure that out. And if you’re not able, then yes, ask Claude or something. AI is coming, whether you like it or not, so you can either go with it or forever fight an uphill battle and become even more miserable than with these “janitor” jobs of yours.
You don’t really know what exactly I’m doing now, but that’s beside the point. I never said they were unimportant, I said there’s not enough challenge to keep my brain occupied. I have pretty severe ADHD. If I don’t get to do something new and interesting nearly every day, I’ll start performing very poorly soon. If the entire planet was dependent on me doing the same exact thing for 8 hours a day and even if I knew it… Well in a few months, we’d all be dead. It wouldn’t be unimportant, it would just not be meaningfully challenging for me and I’d get complacent. It’s how my brain works and even medication doesn’t help a lot. In my first job, I helped displace 2-3 tons of CO2 emissions per day by fixing used laptops slated for landfill, giving them what I’d hope was years of new life. It was great for a while, but it became meaningless for me because it was too easy. 2 years in, I knew that if I had to do it for much longer, I would never recover mentally. I didn’t make it to 3 years at that job.
I mean you don’t really know my situation, I’m actually the sole employee at my company. I decide when, how much and who to work for. I have a few favorite clients that know to give me tough problems rather than boring, repetitive things.
Well, some people don’t want to be lumberjacks or construction workers. Some prefer knowledge work. Those who get into it just for the money will feel drained, I’m sure. But I know a lot of people like myself who do it purely because they love a good problem to solve. I don’t think many of them would function well within normal “meaningful” jobs in the physical world over the long term.
My point was that anything you’d really need to take a course in, won’t be hiring new junior employees by the time you’re finished. Doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, writers, interpreters, artists are going to have their numbers thinned HARD. What we’ll have left for young people is manual labor, customer service, cleaning, etc. Jobs where employees become useful fairly quickly as far as the learning curve is concerned and people are paid low enough that they’re not worth replacing with machines. Tradies will have it safe for now, but I’m anticipating that there will be a LOT more competition for those jobs, particularly electricians because that’s less physically demanding and smelly than plumbing or construction. Which means wages in the trades are also going to go down, particularly for fresh employees.
Anyway, as I said before, I already have enough years of experience in my field that I likely still have a future in it. If I wasn’t raising a toddler alone as a single father, I could grind myself to early retirement in 10 years doing 200 hours a month, but currently I’m working more like 40 a month as a “mindless drone” and it’s enough to get by. It’s not me I’m worried about. I’m worried about other people who can’t handle doing boring work day in and day out.
You’re a software engineer. You told me in your first comment. So no, I absolutely know those jobs are more meaningful.
You can still do knowledge work without being a mindless fleshy AI. You don’t need to be a fucking lumberjack. Quit it with the straw man arguments. I will ignore them, so you’re wasting your own time writing them.
And it’s good that you’re worried about other people, but the arguments you make to get there are utter BS. People can and will adapt and there will not just be lumberjacks and electricians. Maybe challenge your mind with that before making such comments.
You literally have no idea what projects I’ve worked on though. Hint: If I’m working on something in special needs care, I’m touching thousands of lives at once, not 10. But you probably equate me with the same people who develop online casinos or targeting systems for Palantir because I have the same job title.
You want to call me mindless so much, I think you need to look into yourself. What do YOU do?
I don’t know how you can realize that the goal of the companies that own the AI you’re praising is the abolishment of human knowledge work altogether. Knowledge workers cost money. Look, even before the AI craze, the goal of nearly every company looking to make a profit has been to make work as boring and efficient as possible. I’ve been through it. People get reallocated to bite sized responsibility. Only do one thing and do it like a robot.
What kind of jobs do YOU think will exist in the future that are going to require any sort of complex thought? Because I can nearly guarantee that eventually, the doctors in your hospital will be robots, but the bedpan changers will be human. Nurses will be there to administer IVs and such, but shouldn’t have their own opinions.
And if you’re going to say that doctors, nurses, teachers, etc, are safe because those are government jobs not private company jobs… Well, with an aging populace and an already unsustainable pension system, the government’s gonna have to start saving money too.
Does it matter that AI can’t be held accountable and it makes mistakes a human could spot? No, because it’s significantly cheaper than paying a human that needs to pay rent and buy groceries. You just pay one human to take on the liability for the AI that replaced the other 10.