I’m a fan of a youtube series that is popular these days by someone who calls himself “CGPGrey”. Who knows if any of that will be around when you read this, but I’d like to bring up a topic that CGPGrey did a video about: jobs disappearing as they become automated.
It is currently summer between your 3rd and 4th grade school years. This is the second straight year that I’ve had you do “homework” over the summer in the form of daily coding tasks. I’m forcing you (sometimes you enjoy it, sometimes you hate it) to learn how to code at a younger age than most would ever consider trying. You’re doing incredibly well, by the way- you are years ahead of most people who even attempt this kind of work and have gotten further than many who have tried and given up.
You don’t understand it today, but I want you to know why I am pushing this on you so hard. We’ve talked about my parenting approach: I am attempting to give you all of the tools and experience you need to be a successful adult who contributes positively to society. This is exactly why you’re coding over the summers instead of learning how to handle a hammer or change oil.
I want you to have the skills that will enable you to thrive in adulthood. With self-driving cars on the way, teaching you to drive seems like a low-priority. With automated checkout, teaching you to be a clerk at a retail/grocery story seems silly.
One example to prove the point (brought up in the aforementioned video) is horses in the early 1900’s. The horse population peaked in 1915 and has declined steadily ever since then. Do we hate horses? No. It’s just that the early 1900’s saw the automobile enter service and horses suddenly were unnecessary for their primary work. It didn’t happen quickly, but it happened. Just like jobs for horses disappeared, jobs for humans will (and have already started to) disappear.
Coding is what creates the automation (algorithms, etc) that allows jobs to be replaced by robots/computers. So, despite your frustration with doing work over the summer, there actually is a reason for me putting you through this. I care about you and your future and I don’t want you to discover one day that the profession you trained your entire life for is now completely automated. As bad as it sounds, I want you to be the one helping make other jobs disappear due to automation. It helps society progress, and you’ll be a part of that.
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