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Comment by madiator | Hacker News Reader

> Regrettably, this will have an intended impact on approximately 500 employees in our Maps unit, equivalent to around 10% of our total global headcount.

At least they are honest about it.

I am currently reading the first chapter of 21 lessons for the 21st century and it fills me up with a bit of dread. People having been losing jobs for a long time, but in the future it will get harder to get new ones due to the amount of specialization you need to acquire.

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On the other hand, I work in autonomy role at an automaker and we have need for a bunch of people in mapping technology, so they may be well positioned to move to technician roles in related areas. Creative destruction doesn't always have to wipe out the value of "old" skills.

> due to the amount of specialization

I see high amount of specialization but only after onboarding and not asked of potential candidates.

All we ask are capable software engineers, who we then train to be very specialized in what we do.

And out of the entire work force, what percentage do you consider to be capable software engineers? 5%? 1%?

> 5%? 1%?

Why would you estimate so low? There are a lot of mediocre engineers, myself included, but even they are “capable” depending upon what they are tasked to do.

I don't have enough data to come to sweeping generalization of a percentage.

But from my own observations, people who are genuinely interested usually become capable, anecdotally of course.

IMO the trend of loss of jobs to automation or offshoring is unsustainable and we are already seeing the cracks forming in the fabric of society due to it. Maybe that is why some people are trying to "reset" the way the world works.

> I am currently reading the first chapter of 21 lessons for the 21st century and it fills me up with a bit of dread. People having been losing jobs for a long time, but in the future it will get harder to get new ones due to the amount of specialization you need to acquire.

In the future, complementary euthanasia will be part of your severance package.

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