[steve_adams_86]

I’m not an old older worker (37), but I’m a generalist (I’ve done design work in the past, heaps of frontend/UI work on the web and mobile, plenty of backend work, and now a fair amount of work around embedded systems and hardware). I’ve been getting a lot of attention from recruiters very suddenly, but I’m noticing it’s much different work from the last five years or so. I’d say the majority of it is in technologies related to health, which isn’t really where I want to be.

The AI hype train hasn’t touched me, and the hype trains of yesteryear have gone totally silent. The work I used to get approached about most (full stack web roles) have eerily dried up.

It’s nice to know there’s work available, but a little concerning that I’m not finding what I’d like to be doing most.

Virtually all roles I hear about or see are senior too, and occasionally but rarely intermediate. I have a huge amount of sympathy for people just getting started right now — it seems like a hard time to get a foot in the door.

[than3]

> Virtually all roles I hear about or see are senior too...

This is the general trend of things. Experienced workers displace younger workers because they are more productive and cost the company less in training.

Overall the number of jobs available causes this displacement, the experienced workers would prefer to be paid for their experience but haven't found jobs and so compromise. You always have companies hanging out a hiring sign even if there is no real active position available.

There's a book about it called 'The Pinch'. We'll have some real societal trouble once the experienced people start passing. This is two generations in the making. Generally speaking no one wanted to have a discussion about it when it could have mattered. Things are so integrated now; you'll basically have a generational die off of knowledge.

As for the AI hype train, its largely not hype anymore. If by hype you mean doomsday talk, that's actually quite accurate. There's a good overview video done on youtube that does justice to what it can or can't do, and the issues that need to be discussed as opposed to the hyperbole and propaganda flowing about.

The main point being, the advances are happening so quickly now that we can no longer react to any potential problems. Any engineer will say that is a bad situation to be in; a runaway train being appropriate metaphor.

[steve_adams_86]

I suppose in my mind the hype is warranted with AI, but maybe I’m not using the word properly.

I’m concerned about where it’ll take us. On one hand, people talk about how calculators didn’t make it so everyone was unemployed and we’ve had automation for 100 years and so on… But like you mentioned, these technologies weren’t runaway trains. They made slow but steady progress. The latest AI leaps have made fast and dramatic progress, with no obvious reason to see it stopping. The changes will impact certain knowledge workers first, but I have a strong sense that it will reach out further into blue collar work perhaps sooner than we’d first guess.

That only touches on fears about employment and wealth disparity. It doesn’t begin to touch on micro and macro threats on a sociopolitical level. These are strange times.

[than3]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoVJKj8lcNQ&ab_channel=Cente...

This is the video I was talking about. My main background is in Systems Engineering, and my main concerns are the fact that we can't react, coupled with the socioeconomic part of it. I've got a decent background in economics as well though I wouldn't call myself an economist. I've yet to meet a real economist, most just use it as a prop to lie and support credibility for something that clearly isn't true when you dig into the details.

You really don't need a super advanced AI to do irreparable damage. All you really need it to do is stall the economic cycle and people end up doing the rest when they can't get food. Its one of those cascade failures that has repeated throughout history fairly regularly. Food Shortages->Unrest->Collapse->New Government, and that's what keeps me up because its so simple, but like any dam you don't see what led to the collapse until its really too late to do anything. Its worse when its pointed out, and no one pays attention.