Monday, September 26, 2011

Jobs? Not going to be easy to get anymore?

So, jumping through a few hyperlinks (have no idea where I started) I ended up reading this:

The paradox is this. A job seeker is looking for something for a well-defined job. But the trend seems to be that if a job can be defined, it can be automated or outsourced.
The marginal product of people who need well-defined jobs is declining. The marginal product of people who can thrive in less structured environments is increasing.

As if he we reading my mind, and extending this logic of if it can be defined, it can then be automated, Farhad Manjoo has an awesome piece with a warning that you ought to be scared shitless--even if you happen to be highly educated and have a well-paying job"

if computers have already come for middle-skilled workers, and if low-skilled workers aren't an attractive enough target, who's left? That's right: Professionals—people whose jobs required years of schooling, and who, consequently, make a lot of money doing them. As someone who is fascinated with technology, the stuff I found in my investigation of robots and the workforce tickled me. I got to see a room-size pill-dispensing robot, machines that can find cervical cancer on pap-smear slides, and even servers than can write news stories. As someone who likes his job (and his paycheck), what I saw terrified me.

All the more the reason why developing our creative abilities becomes important, right?  It is only there, at least for now, computers fall behind human brains.

The Economist, while slicing and dicing through the data regarding Rick Perry's boasts on being a one-man job-creating machine, notes:

[An] argument has emerged that American politicians must focus on job quality, not just quantity. In general, any job is better than no job, but it is true that some jobs are dangerous, distressing, or fail to put workers above the poverty threshold. That last is a particular concern: on September 13th the Census Bureau announced that in 2010 the poverty rate was 15.1%, up from 14.2% in 2009.

Or, maybe we should go with the what Ken Jennings, the Jeopardy uber-champion, wrote in his answer to the final question, "I, for one, welcome our new computer overlords" :(

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