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'Deskilling' is totally fine if it's replaced by people who have skills at a higher level of abstraction.

Often - the people who are replaced don't recognize the inherent skills of the people who operate the machines that do their work.

But there are often non-obvious tradeoffs.

Having Ikea means we can have vastly, vastly more selection and choice in the things we put in our homes.

And the 'quality' is usually fit for purpose (just because it's not made of Oak, doesn't mean it won't last a very long time).

But when you see a winding staircase or those custom moulds .... well you realize 'what we've lost'.

There's always a trade-off even if the net positive is there.

That 'externalized craftsmanship' sure does add up though ...



> Often - the people who are replaced don't recognize the inherent skills of the people who operate the machines that do their work.

It's not so much the people who _operate_ the machines as the people who _build_ the machines.


A very, very long time ago, at my first job, the people who used anything other than C were considered 'fake' developers and were resentful that everything was shifting away from C for most things. I felt that :)




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