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Joined May 2008
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Peter Barber retweeted
The jobs apocalypse is the Population Bomb of our time.
Instead we're seeing more hiring in the job most affected by AI: programming. That should have been clear and obvious to anyone with basic economics understanding and good handle on the history of technology but it's sadly lacking today.
Fear sells. It drives clicks. It drive engagements.
The jobs apocalypse scenario comes from catastrophizing personalities and people who think of life as a zero sum game. It's the same mistake the communist theorists made. They thought jobs and labor were fixed and there's nothing new under the sun. If we take one job that job is lost forever and that person is now useless.
Wrong.
Instead, what happens is that when something gets faster and cheaper we want more of it.
Much more.
There is so much software that we could not build before because there weren't enough skilled people and not enough time and it wasn't worth the time or money.
Now it is worth it because it is faster and cheaper.
Cheaper for SaaS builders, cheaper for individuals, cheaper for enterprises, cheaper for everyone.
That's why were are seeing programmer jobs tick upwards.
Right now we are not seeing juniors get hired but that is also always the case in a recovery. We just saw mass layoffs because of overhiring during COVID and cheap money printing that made lending essentially free. The unskilled, aka junior workers, are always the last hired. You want skilled verterans who can take on the new technology with experience and take off running not someone you have to train and babysit when you have been stuck in third gear for a few years.
Job populists on the hard left like Sanders and many of his mirrors on the populist hard right are the enemies of actual working economies and must be resisted at all costs. They hurt the very people they hope to help by clinging to the past and thinking of life as a zero sum game.
This increase in jobs is the reality that will increasingly play out over the next few years if AI keeps getting better, barring some other economic shock that changes the game. It will increasingly play out even when we have "geniuses in a datacenter."
It will be a shock to some. Just not the jobs shock they were expecting.
Sorry to disappoint but we're not getting UBI any time soon while the robots do all the jobs and you sit on your ass.
Seems like we are all going to have to work a bit longer.
Mar 6
This article tries to explain the current software engineering hiring boom in some targeted areas to the Jevons Paradox.
"The same pattern repeated with computing. Cheaper transistors didn’t mean fewer transistors. We put computers in everything. Cheaper bandwidth didn’t mean less data consumed. We invented streaming video and TikTok.
Now apply this to software development."
When AI makes software 10X cheaper to build, companies don't immediately fire people, they just build 10X more software!
While the AI writes the basic code, the demand for human engineers to review it and build large systems is higher than ever.
"Germany tells the same story from the employer side. The Bitkom 2025 study (855 companies surveyed) found 109,000 unfilled IT positions. Down from 149,000 in 2023, but 79% of companies expect the shortage to worsen. And here’s the Jevons signal: 42% anticipate needing additional IT specialists specifically because of AI adoption."
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turingcollege .com/blog/will-ai-replace-software-engineers
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19 Jul 2020
Good compilation of serverless patterns
dev.to/nideveloper/cdk-patte…
by x.com/NIDeveloper
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Peter Barber retweeted
20 Aug 2018
The next uncovered scam will be seed oil, particularly corn oil, which has been passing for "healthy" w/o evidence nor time tested uses, nor any direct evidence it is healthier than butter.
Instead of high carb/low carb, consider: w/ or w/o seed oil, grains ...
cc: @Mangan150
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9 Dec 2017
Peter Barber retweeted
11 Oct 2017
Here's this week's cartoon for Guardian Straya: x.com/guardianaus/status/918…
11 Oct 2017
David Squires on ... Tim Cahill's rescue of Australia and Ange Postecoglou trib.al/AvbxvHS
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19 Oct 2017
Facebook, the ultimate marketing platform. x.com/martinfowler/status/92…
18 Oct 2017
My feelings about Facebook are like those of Windows in the 90's. I use because everyone else does, but I don't like it
9 Oct 2017
Art may be most usefully defined as the discipline devoted to trying to get concepts creatively into people’s heads. @allaindebotton
9 Oct 2017
Fucking CBA bank, how many more ways are they screwing us and our kids over? news.com.au/finance/dollarmi…
Peter Barber retweeted
29 Sep 2017
Richard Madeley Meets The Squatters is the most real-life Alan Partridge show ever broadcast on British TV...
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12 Sep 2017
David Squires on … the Premier League, trapped bats and Roy Hodgson's return theguardian.com/football/ng-…
12 Sep 2017
The monster of the london sewer system.....oh no its the fatberg!
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26 Jul 2017
.@RepDonYoung thank you for standing up for #NetNeutrality and opposing @AjitPaiFCC's plan. battleforthenet.com
26 Jul 2017
.@SenDanSullivan, stop selling out your constituents. Oppose @AjitPaiFCC's plan to gut #NetNeutrality battleforthenet.com
Peter Barber retweeted
11 Jun 2017
If only our government could be this forward thinking. This is Ideas Boom to the max! x.com/businessinsider/status…
8 Jun 2017
France is offering foreign scientists 4-year grants to move to the country and do research read.bi/2r9TNDe
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Where are the #%*> aliens? inverse.com/article/14957-dr…
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15 Aug 2016
Your chance to WIN $1,000,000 plus 30 Prizes in 30 Days pages.nbla.com.au/thanksyou/… via @NBL