[klibertp]

Agreed with both you and GP. The denial is a normal emotional response. It's not strange to cling to your decades of professional experience and skillset. It's just that, now really is not the time for emotional responses. It's time to start running away from the crowd so that you're one of those not made redundant. You can grieve the lost innocence of days past later.

[__rito__]

I myself, am at crossroads.

I do Computer Vision research for a company, and wanted to go to Academia (in US/UK/NA/EU). That's a too risky career choice now, and has always been. What if I am not as brilliant as I think and cannot meaningfully contribute to Science? (Or don't get tenure?) Wanted to do either ML + fundamental Science or Edge AI.

Thinking of going to med school. I am sure I can qualify. So thinking of preparing for that while keeping my industry job.

Another option is going into Administration, i.e. government jobs, by qualifying something called UPSC (I am in India).

I fully understand what's going on and I am under no denial that many jobs in many sectors will be made redundant and competition will skyrocket. Societal turmoil is inevitable.

I am just 23 and weighing in my options. My days are so emotional and full of dilemmas and trilemmas.

I keep myself sane by doing my job, side hustle, dogs, family, and friends. I will be depressed if I ponder too much into these.

[crop_rotation]

Med School takes too long though. UPSC will be great if you can pull it off.

[__rito__]

Yes, but med school has at least hints of technicality. I always have been a problem-solver/analytical kind of guy- my whole life.

You use your brains to solve interesting problems, at least sometimes.

And even if you are an IAS, after your district posting ends, you are just another government servant. Doing repeatative jobs, bound to an office.

Will I even like that life 20 years later?

And the income in UPSC jobs is too low. Lower than doctors or techies (I make close to an entry level IAS now).

Another point to consider is:

Once you learn programming, you are always a programmer.

Once you are a doctor, you are always a doctor.

But your status as IAS is solely tied to your job. You leave or you retire- you are a nobody again.

Honestly, I don't have enough information to decide. I am postponing making this decision as much as I can.

Thank you for your comment, anyway.

[crop_rotation]

You make some very interesting points. I would be very interested to read about your future deliberations, if you post them anywhere (your bio links to your website).

[__rito__]

I don't write personal stuff there. If you leave me an email- if you want, I will make sure to let you know if I write something in the line of our communication.

[jacquesm]

I too would love to see your thoughts in more detail.

[crop_rotation]

The thing is unlike the rise of the PC based tools, with the rise of LLMs it is too hard to see what the safe careers are. Careers that might be safe and have high income potential are mostly not quick to switch to.

[jacquesm]

Plumber.

[crop_rotation]

Yeah, there is no universe where there is enough demand for plumbers to sustain even the same order of magnitude of number of jobs for even a smaller category of knowledge work. And when you unleash millions of plumbers, the wages won't look better than McDonalds.

[jacquesm]

There are not that many plumbers not because the market isn't there. It is because people don't want to be plumbers to begin with.

[crop_rotation]

The market can never be big enough for plumbers to absorb even a tiny bit of knowledge workers. There is not enough plumbing to be done. Also if a lot of people do try to become plumbers, the wages will plummet similar to other jobs where availability of labour is high. Your statement will hold true if 2x more people wanted to enter plumbing, not 20x or 200x.