I don’t doubt that that’s a problem either in some of those small businesses.

I have a great electrician that I call all the time. He’s probably in his late 60s. It’s definitely more of a rough and tumble work environment than IT work, for sure, but he’s a good guy and he pays his people well and he charges me an arm and a leg.

But we talk about it and he tells me about how the same work he would have charged a quarter the price just 10 years ago. And honestly, he’s one of the more affordable ones.

So it definitely seems like the trades is the place to be these days with so few good ones around. But yeah you have to pick and choose who’s mentoring you.

Exactly this.

Absolutely. This is a huge problem and I’ve read about this very problem from a number of sources. This will have a huge impact on engineering and information work.

Interestingly enough, A similar shortage occurred in the trades when information work was up and coming and the trades were shunned as a career path for many. Now we don’t have enough plumbers and electricians. Trades are now finding their the skills in high demand and charging very high rates.

Yeah I’ve seen that before and it’s basically what I’m talking about. Again, that’s not “printing a 3D house” as hype would lead one to believe. Is it extruding cement to build the walls around very carefully placed framing and heavily managed and coordinated by people and finished with plumbing, electrical, etc.

It’s cool that they can bring this huge piece of equipment to extrude cement to form some kind of wall. It’s a neat proof of concept. I personally wouldn’t want to live in a house that looked anything like or was constructed that way. Would you?

The LLM worship has to stop.

It’s like saying a hammer can build a house. No, it can’t.

It’s useful to pound in nails and automate a lot of repetitive and boring tasks but it’s not going to build the house for you - architect it, plan it, validate it.

It’s similar to the whole 3D printing hype. You can 3D print a house! No you can’t.

You can 3D print a wall, maybe a window.

Then have a skilled Craftsman put it all together for you, ensure fit and finish and essentially build the final product.

It magnifies the worst in people.