[VladRussian]

>my teacher friends, and many immediately thought this was supposed to be their replacement.

what a poor state of the profession if practicing professionals can be scared that easy into thinking that they are that easily replaceable.

That is especially interesting considering the anecdotal evidence i see how private tutoring market is growing. People more and more feel the need to have their children provided with additional instruction at least in the areas they feel most important for the children to not fail at, usually math/science subjects.

[SoftwareMaven]

Unfortunately, the state of our educational system encourages this. Our whole school system has evolved to optimizing test taking, much of which can easily be replaced by videos.

[ZachPruckowski]

"what a poor state of the profession if practicing professionals can be scared that easy into thinking that they are that easily replaceable."

After watching everyone from factory workers to call centers to programmers get their jobs replaced by machines and/or third-worlders, I wouldn't blame any profession for worrying about being made obsolete.

[VladRussian]

well, i don't see any scared lawyers or doctors though we can come up with a lot of ways to outsource and automate [significant part of] their jobs. Actually the outsourcing and the automation have been successfully happening there (an actual example, the detailed hi-res microscope pictures are sent to India, analyzed there and results here are signed off by US licensed professional - everybody is happy, software provider, India employees and the US professional) and so far these industries have mostly embraced it.

[ZachPruckowski]

Lawyers get outsourced. Usually just the routine paperwork stuff that the associates would otherwise handle, but they don't get off scot-free.

[kenjackson]

There's also not a wholesale attack by an entire political party and news network against either of those professions.

[jleader]

It's not that they think they're that easily replaceable, it's that they fear that the decision-makers see them as that easily replaceable.

In other words, they're not that foolish, but they fear that their bosses (administrators, politicians, the general public) might be that foolish.