Hacker News Reader

Comment by chroem- | Hacker News Reader

Before someone inevitably mocks these people as being less enlightened, this isn't that surprising. Labor isn't fungible: retraining would involve abandoning a career and all the seniority it entails, going back to school and losing the ability to work and generate income, and finally being forced to relocate. Is their attachment to coal tragic? Yes. Is it unreasonable? No.

Imagine if tomorrow there was an AI that obsoleted the entire software industry. Would you willingly retrain as a carpenter?

View on HN

I've asked this question before (what would you do if software development went away[1]) and the response indicated that they would not, or could not entertain that thought. Instead they posited that such a world would be impossible or that developers could go back to school to be lawyers - not realizing that new law school grads had a 25% unemployment rate.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=chrisbennet&next=123... half way down the page, search for "As a thought exercise"

"As a thought exercise, what will/would software developers do once 90% are made redundant by A.I. or something? Maybe "suck it up" and go back to school to become nurses?"

I'd study to be a radiology tech or something along those lines. Tech and Healthcare are the "jobs of the future", if you take tech out of the equation, the answer is obvious.

Direct link:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12330079

Plumbing. Seriously.

Lab tech. It's not specialized, so there's no fear of your entire field drying up (like cytology). Every hospital needs them, so you can find work anywhere in the country. The downsides are it doesn't pay well and it requires a two year program followed by state specific licensing exams. Those last two points result in a true labor shortage. Most Hospitals will hire licensed lab techs sight unseen.

There are tons of things I'd want to try if I became redundant due to automation. However, if that were to suddenly happen the world would quickly change so dramatically that we would not be able to determine what careers are stable and worth training in, so I'm not sure that's a fair example.

Their decision is not reasonable. Coal is dying. These miners are laboring under the delusion that their jobs will come back, which will never happen. Their decision is understandable. It's tragic. It's pathetic in the classic sense. It's also foolish.

I feel arrogant and condescending for saying this, but it's the way I see it.

Read the article. It's not really as black and white as the headline made it out to be (clickbait for sure).

There is some logic to why they're deciding to not take re-training.

I will go little bit off-topic here, but regarding your question, I would, carpentry sounds very interesting and engaging. What I would miss would be the nice salary that comes with working in SW.

Union carpenters can make pretty good money, actually. Once you get some seniority, the rate improves nicely. Finish carpenters make pretty good wages.

They average $76,000/year, which is not that bad depending on where you live. You can do better than that, as much of the industry is slowed down during the winter months. The few that I know take that layoff as a yearly winter vacation.

Also consider that $76,000 with the ability to find plenty of work outside of coastal metropolitan areas is a pretty sweet deal.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com