The WNBA will be fine. They're going to increase demand by shaming us into watching it. If that doesn't work they'll pass laws that we have to watch it. It will be part of your phone and Internet package; no WNBA, no phone. Great, great business model.
That resonates with me right now here in Switzerland. The women's soccer Euros are on and the gaslighting and astroturfing is off the charts. And don't you DARE miss out! And yet, there are no klaxxoning cars when Switz wins, no packed out sports bars, no deadly hushes on the street when matches are on, and the Panini sticker books are gathering dust in my local supermarket. We live in a world of gaslighting bullshit.
This reminds me of the body positive movement. You can be all sizes and be healthy! You look attractive with your water-wing arms and your flat tire overflowing your tight skirt. You are uber attractive in that half shirt showing your pannus/midriff.
And yet, aside from some virtue signalling likes on social media, your dating life has not improved.
Oddly, I'm a chunky gal, but I have a gorgeous hunpie who looks like Captain Nemo, bc I'm happy being a woman, I don't nag, I love to laugh with him, and we're planning on running away after retirement in 5 years, and sailing around the world. We hope our combined 8 children will periodically join our adventure. Only bitter feminists are complaining while sitting at home. The rest of us are loving life!
I'm more like a giant sea manetee that was cut out of the movie Finding Nemo.
I don't think it's odd at all to be chunky these days. Sadly, Chunky is the norm, and I am chunky, but not Norm (who sadly recently died).
It sounds though that you own who you are, and don't think it is positive your chunky, but you are great in spite of your added volume. I agree with you on that, and would say we aren't who we look like.
Wow, the sounds fantastic, Ruff. Your husband is a lucky guy! I suspect that your final sentences hold the truth: most women are like most men: getting on with things and having the best life possible!
First you know how to sail. Automatic win in my book. At a certain age the wall spares no woman. In the end young men you may end up with a woman that is not very nice and not fun to be around as when your chemicals were overflowing. Being obese is a choice now and everyone knows it. I just ran into and dropped a large chunk off of me this year. Such is life or buy new clothes
I am overweight as well, and make no mistake. women are not lining up to date me, especially sans a half a leg. Although maybe I should lean in, buy a peg leg, invest in a parrot and hang around Jimmy Buffett tribute band concerts, that might be my pool of women.
Reminds me of the 2nd grade joke of Woodrow the one-eyed boy inviting Margaret, the one-legged girl, if she’d like to go to the school dance on Friday night:
- Would I? Would I?!?!?? she replied all excited.
To which he angrily responded:
- Wood eye? Fine, forget it then, Peg-leg, Peg-leg!!!
We’ll be watching the WNBA like the films in Clockwork Orange, with our eyes held wide with paper clips and head strapped into a jig. And we’ll love it. And we can get another Covid jab while we’re at it. I can’t wait. Not!
Bahahaha....meanwhile they dog out the best player the league has ever had that people actually WANT to watch. They are the biggest group of BOOBS(in an intellectual sense) the country has seen in a while.
Clark brought some new eyeballs, her reward, being labelled a racist, and her fans labelled racist. You will watch a bunch of angry left wing black lesbians, or you will watch nothing at all isn’t a very good selling point.
That's the book I most wish I'd read as a teenager instead of as a 30something.
I gave it to my oldest but he didn't read it. The pleasant surprise was that he told me he'd already seen a bunch of videos of Sowell on YouTube. Maybe someday he'll read the book. He's going to college anyway but at least he's a business major and might find something of some value from his mountain of debt.
That's immediately what I jumped to when I saw these t-shirts: do these players actually understand what they are asking for? They are worse than worthless because they generate losses.
We read a book called “Boys Adrift” by Leonard Sax when our two boys were in high school. Great book. It’s about the benefits of boys going into the trades instead of university and how crucial trades are to the economy. We decided at that point the kids would pay for their own school. We weren’t going to finance a degree because that was “how it’s done”. Both boys decided to become heavy duty mechanics. $10k for school, no student loans, high wages and constant job offers. Huge sense of accomplishment for them and for us as their parents!
You made the right choice. My daughter is just finishing her 4 year BA degree - 4 frigging years - in music. We've worked our butt off to get her through because she's really talented. Haven't had the courage yet to tell her what the job market is like.
The reason the women's professional sports (WNBA, soccer) generate FAR less revenue than their male counterparts is pretty simple - it is an inferior product. I'm all for supporting women in sports and the benefits that come from athletic achievement and participation in sports. But it is a simple fact that the best professional women's basketball or soccer team would lose to a good boys high school junior varsity team at least 50% of the time. So it is no surprise that they do not generate the number of eyeballs (in seats and on screens) and commensurate revenue that their male counterparts do. The whole "pay us what we are worth" canard is a joke - the market is telling you what you are worth, and you are being paid FAR in excess of the value you provide. The response to that request should be "How about this, we need X dollars to run this league (pay for arenas, officials, all the other aspects of operations that go into putting the games on) We'll subtract that from the total revenue generated, make not a single dime of profit, and you can divide up whatever is left on whatever basis you like. Sound reasonable?" They would make much less than they are making today. And I'd love to see how they decided to split the pot!
And let's not forget they had an actual man playing on one of their teams. His name was Brittany greiner. Whatever his real name is...
When he was in prison in Russia he was put in the men's prison because he's a man. But people kept insisting he was actually a woman. Even though his wife gave birth apparently using his little swimmers.
And now he has come out and admitted he's actually a man. But all this time he was playing for the wnba! So wtf?
It makes one question what's so special about the WNBA if men can play in it. The whole thing is a scam.
There are many great women's sports. A lot of my students are into netball, and that's a pretty cool sport. However, whenever a sport is both male and female, the male part tends to be better. No disrespect to women, but that's just how it is.
Totally agree. Personally, I think women's volleyball is the best women's team sport and I prefer it to men's volleyball, where the ball hardly ever crosses over the net more than 3 times in a point (often less). Great athleticism in the women's game and great points. Nebraska women's volleyball team getting over 90,000 spectators at the football stadium for a match a couple years ago is a great example of a women's sport getting real, and not just symbolic, fan support.
Good economics lesson. Really Basic 101 Economics applied at high level sports. Things are changing. Where I live, any good electrician, plumber, carpenter, handy man, and lawn service can make a FORTUNE. Many have a two month, or longer, schedule of waiting clients. It isn't in the degree you hold anymore; it is what can you do to help support 'living'.
I'm really old but I work as a handyman. I could work 24/7 if I wanted too. To be good at it, you have to have decades of experience great problem solving skills and you have to be healthy and strong.
I only work for a small circle of rich people, mostly ladies. They will wait weeks for me to get around to them. Great service and scarce competition equals easy living.
We bought a home in a new thousand home sub division in FL five years ago. There is a young guy late twenties who was out of work so he started mowing lawns. He’s a smart guy, hard worker and every time a new house sold he was there signing them up for lawn service. Five years later he had a big business doing a large per cent of all the homes plus the HOA contract for the common area plus contracts in other areas. Owns trucks a fleet of large mowers. And employees. There’s no question that there are plenty of opportunities for those willing to work
I am a licensed DVM. I have a distinct memory of having these stupid arguments with my ABSURDLY unintelligent ex regarding this -- even veterinarians are oversupplied and having difficulty getting decent wages that can actually pay back the cost of the degree. The student debt concept is real.
I am EXTREMELY fortunate to have come from a well-off family. I worked a job at my family pharmaceutical business which paid for my vet degree (it actually DID make sense for me to do this as the business is FDA regulated and we reasoned that FDA would prefer to see me have a doctoral degree for the prestige of it ... Yeah). Had I not had this leg up on life, I would never have been able to afford to pay down the cost of the degree itself.
Granted, this birthright advantage gave me a boatload of KARMIC debt that I had to atone for ... The past ten-odd years of my life have been a rollercoaster ride. That said, I am now cautiously optimistic that things will be looking up from now on. Just have to get my boyfriend out of Space Jail and all will be well.
In our market, Missouri, Vet salaries have increased and it's a job market that favors the employee Vet. This is especially true for those willing to work in a large animal practice.
Pet care is a waste of time. My last dog lived 15 years, took her to vet maybe twice her entire life. Never updated her vaccines, only had whatever the lady we rescued her from gave her. My new puppy we adopted had to have all manner of vaccines, had to be fixed in order to adopt him. He was fine until the procedure to snip his nuts( he was 1 year by then). Whatever they gave him he now breaks out in rashes constantly. He was fine first year until then. Took him to vet they want a special diet and all these tests all cost a lot. We bought some antibacterial wipes and a few other things to wipe him down with anytime we take him out. No more rashes. Animals don’t live long enough to spend thousands of dollars on.
The "vaccines" are the moneymaker, much like with humans. I have a family friend that went into veterinary medicine, and where she ended up working, there is a commission system for anything they manage to push. That kind of incentive is not in the interests of the pet.
That seems to be a Perfect Storm! Not only Vet Care, but Dog Food and Cat Food. And don't get me started on Hay and Grain for Horses. In our market, due to supply and demand factors employee Vet salaries have gone way up. Then the Drug Companies have continued to RAISE prices for their products and this includes all the Canine, Feline, Equine Vaccines.
What area of vet practice are you in? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm guessing the oversupply is strongly tilted toward the pet care side of the house, not toward large animal.
I actually work in the pharmaceutical industry. I have never actually been in practice. But you are correct, there is a dramatic shortage of large animal vets.
You are spot on. Another consideration, is how much the unnecessary, unproductive, pursuit of college degrees (and the resulting debt, by students below the 20th percentile) has impacted our national debt. Add to that the questionable quality and value of much of the “knowledge” that is “gained”, and college becomes a net loss for both the student and the nation.
Lol...Adam vs. Chris. In 1982 I received a BA ...in Philosophy. A year later I moved to Austin Tx with a one way bus ticket and $100.00. (I was on my way to California to enroll at UCLA to pursue a post graduate degree. After sleeping on a friend's back porch for a year I started a roofing company . Life is good .
Solid analysis. But you’re a bit off on leaning to code.
You’re right about college. For 15 years I’ve been advising to skip the comp sci degree. I’ve participated in hundreds of interviews, and we never look at education. We simply look at your work, or have you do some work while we watch.
Anyone with the aptitude can learn to code from the Internet, or worst case, a six month boot camp.
But coding jobs aren’t going away. For 20 years they’ve been telling us domestic demand will collapse due to offshoring or H1B. Meanwhile my compensation just kept going up and up. The ready explanation: turns out that co-location or culture matters more than we thought. But that’s not the reason. Here’s why:
The demand for software is, practically speaking, infinite. Software is still eating the world.
At my last job we rejected 90% of requests. The payoff had to be something like 10x. The reason was constrained supply of coders. It’s common wisdom that a minority of the coders in any shop produce most of the output, and a minority at the other end is a drag on output. There just aren’t enough skilled coders to be had. Not domestically. Not globally. Coding has been largely work-from-anywhere for a long time now. I was working on a global remote team in 2010.
But what about AI? Isn’t that a new kind of threat? It’s new, but it’s the same kind of threat: supply expansion.
Some shops are going hard on AI for coding. Others are slow because of privacy concerns. I’m indie now, so I get to decide, and I’ve gone all in.
AI immediately increased my output 3-5x. My AI agent is basically a junior developer that I direct and supervise. It writes all the code, and I review and approve it.
But AI today needs a seasoned senior coder like me. It’s nowhere near ready to work under a non-coder. I could be wrong, but I doubt it ever will be. Not soon anyway.
But won’t a 5X productivity gain decimate jobs? No, because as I said, demand is practically infinite. Realignment takes time, but it will happen.
So what about the current hiring slump?
AI is certainly creating a major short run disruption … and a very interesting dilemma. It’s is pushing down demand for junior devs (really driving home the advice to skip college). But this is not sustainable. How will we get senior coders to supervise AI without them first being junior coders? I honestly don’t know the solution, but I do know that it will be solved.
So by all means, learn to code. Just don’t pay a lot for it.
This has been my experience. I have a CS degree from ~20 years ago because that's what you did -- even if you knew the stuff, that piece of paper is what opened the doors. Like most of my era and earlier, any kind of degree was a formality because you had already been programming and building as a kid before choosing that field.
It's different now. Now "learning to code" is treating it more like a vocational school, like training as a cashier, and the product is a junior dev of questionable competence. Rote memorization only goes so far -- you need the knack for abstract logical thinking to truly be valuable because every project and system has its own quirks. Those that can't work like that are the ones AI is really going to replace, and they'll be forced to move on to whatever the next equivalent of "learn to code" is, but like you said, the world does need junior developers with potential.
Where I am, we're being pushed heavily to leverage the AI tools and integrate them into our workflow. It's just a dangerous path right now because they're often subtlety wrong yet very convincing superficially. Junior developers rarely can identify when it's wrong and run with the results, introducing glaring security holes among other problems. Senior developers can see benefit from them, but much of that benefit comes in selective application -- knowing when the task is one it can handle. It's very easy to end up spending more time verifying and fixing the results than if you had just done the work yourself.
Ultimately, in my opinion, the vast majority of people are incapable of doing much more than a mediocre job at anything, whether it's food service or programming or electrical or writing. The world _is_ a living version of the Gell-Mann effect -- many people appear more competent simply because the observer lacks field knowledge. The manual workers will be fine for now, but the knowledge workers are at a precipice. That's the part of the world that AI is going to really shake up.
Try Claude Code if you haven’t. It’s really excellent.
The models themselves are really superb. It’s great at reasoning about problems and looking at my code to understand what’s going on. It definitely makes dumb mistakes, but it also catches things I miss.
What’s really excellent is the workflow. I never have to trust anything. As it implements my prompt, it shows me each code change in turn and allows me to approve or give further instructions. It explains everything it’s doing as it goes.
It has all kinds of other features like allowing me to set up general instructions to always follow (eg, coding patterns and style), GitHub integration, running tests and fixing broken ones, etc.
Even cooler than the productivity improvement, it allows me to work at a much higher level, making the job much more enjoyable.
The major issues I see are "AI" eating the positions of junior coders. Which will come back to bite us in the ass, yes, but the bean counters aren't going to care about that.
That said, I also know that I lean heavily pessimistic, so maybe it'll be fine. I still wouldn't advise anyone in my family to go that route unless they're a natural 20 wizard at it by middle school.
"you need the knack for abstract logical thinking to truly be valuable because every project and system has its own quirks"
It's the ability to understand the quirks that has value. And someone that can understand that will be able to increase quality and productivity by several multiples using AI strategically. AI speeds up highly skilled users; it can only replace them on basic and trivial systems. Complex systems don't always follow the rules...
Let’s just observe how feminism kicks women in the can here again.
Nobody wants a female plumber, so guys have the trades, but what do women have? Healthcare? But men can and do work in that field as well.
If only we hadn’t been conditioned to think real women don’t stay home to raise children. If only women hadn’t so flooded the labor market that it’s financially impossible for many to stay home.
I was told to have a trade because you can't always count on being supported. I'm damn glad I have a work background of sorts (worked p/t when kids were young while grandparents watched them, then f/t after in a specialized niche) so I can support myself after we lost everything during my husband's long illness.
There has to be a happy medium between full on career path and something to keep you from destitution in widowhood.
Agreed! Not just for the wife, but for the husband, so he knows there’s a backup plan. And there are lots of side projects to earn money while raising kids.
I object. I don't give the slightest of fucks what plumbing my plumber has. I care if they can keep my toilet flowing.
Nobody gives a shit what wedding tackle their truck driver has. When I was in CDL school, my primary competition for the #1 slot in the class was a gal, and I certainly didn't dismiss her just because she had a rack, because the only thing that mattered was who could back the damned truck up in a single maneuver.
But I have been to trade school four times since I got my CS degree, and the only field where women even came close to matching male participation was in EMS, and even there it was like 25%, as opposed to 5%.
EMS occasionally requires actual mass. Welding, machining, and truck driving don't, but women never go to school for those, based on my experience.
Sure, an exceptionally strong woman could be a plumber. I just hope if you hire a female plumber that you don’t get one who needs her husband’s help to open jars.
That type of individual isn't going into the trades, or they're not going to last in the field.
Pretty much all residential plumbing is pvc or pex (as opposed to cast iron) and there are tools that do the heavy work anyway.
I just finished replacing my upstairs tub and shower feed and drain lines- so I can say that my obese knee and hip replacement patients create a similar physical strain- yet nursing is still mostly female.
The WNBA's real argument is, "We're just as good as men! You OWE us!"
It's a religious belief. And the bad path we could tread is the one where the religious fanatics of "socialism," manage to make their belief system the dominant one.
A few decades ago when I still loved basketball I tried to like the WNBA as much as I liked the NBA and even went to a game and bought a NY Liberty teeshirt because Teresa Weatherspoon played like a guy. The rest of 'em all looked silly to me with them ponytails bouncing up and down as they traveled the court and I just really couldn't watch with serious attention.
So, yes, exactly.
It is too bad for several generations of kids now that respectable non-college jobs have been meteored out of existence. Anyone else here from NY and of my generation? Remember when salespeople at fine dept. stores had real class? And of course there was me. Secretary though often called a fancier title 'cause I usually worked for the boss at whatever place it was and with a salary and benefits package that often edged out what the college grads were earning or at least kept par with them.
Really time, ain't it, that them Ivies got taken down a peg or dozen? With what we've seen lately those kids on fancy campuses are long overdue for reality to crash in on 'em.
Gato's topic today is a story that was heard at least a dozen years ago, so what is surprising is that even after three generations of college graduates, if you will, the lesson failed to take root.
Too, the longevity of said job can be tenuous: There are no old basketballers or even engineers for that matter; what does one do for an encore when the curtain falls?
Indeed, that's what I and many of my retirees are wrestling with. As self-employed my entire life, my social security payouts are not that good. And though I was on track to have a comfortable retirement, the whole covid debacle screwed that.
I've been working since I was 8 years old. But now even though I am able to do retail, office work, many of the things that help a company run, I can't find a job.
It turns out AI is doing the analyzing. So you fill out an application on indeed.com, and the company is too lazy to take a look at it. They run it through AI and AI recommends the best candidate. So there's not even the ability to have a sit-down conversation with the owner of the company or the hiring people.
I've spoken with many seniors who have great work ethic, and who would be happy with a part-time job, which means little to no benefits being paid out for them.
Yet we find ourselves not only with a crappy social security payment, we can't find any jobs to supplement it. So I have no sympathy for a company who complains that the new generations don't show up for work or find reasons to go home early. When all of these seniors would be very happy to have that job and would do it well.
I'm thinking of writing an article (published where?) about the dangers of letting AI do your hiring for you. The owner has an idea why they started their company. Does AI know? Of course not. I can relate if you need to screen applicants, I used to do the hiring for a huge company. But still, this is just stupid.
I'm turned down because I'm "overqualified." What does that even mean? What a copout. Even I wouldn't use that when I was hiring. I know if I could meet them face to face I'd have a fighting chance. AND, I also know a face to face meeting would help me understand if I even want to work for them.
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change, that lives within the means available and works co-operatively against common threats."
I signed with a pro box lacrosse team when I was young. I made more money painting houses than I would playing, so I wasn't badly hurt when they folded.
The WNBA has a problem. Basketball is more boring than even baseball, and the ladies aren't anywhere close to hot. I might actually watch a bunch of hotties bouncing around a basketball court, but their ability to play means nothing.
Even today, pro lacrosse players know they are in a niche sport and salaries will be limited. That is why almost all of them have other gigs (ex indoor lacrosse, high school or college coaching, summer camps and tournaments, etc.) How many WNBA players are hustling like that?
The WNBA will be fine. They're going to increase demand by shaming us into watching it. If that doesn't work they'll pass laws that we have to watch it. It will be part of your phone and Internet package; no WNBA, no phone. Great, great business model.
That resonates with me right now here in Switzerland. The women's soccer Euros are on and the gaslighting and astroturfing is off the charts. And don't you DARE miss out! And yet, there are no klaxxoning cars when Switz wins, no packed out sports bars, no deadly hushes on the street when matches are on, and the Panini sticker books are gathering dust in my local supermarket. We live in a world of gaslighting bullshit.
This reminds me of the body positive movement. You can be all sizes and be healthy! You look attractive with your water-wing arms and your flat tire overflowing your tight skirt. You are uber attractive in that half shirt showing your pannus/midriff.
And yet, aside from some virtue signalling likes on social media, your dating life has not improved.
Oddly, I'm a chunky gal, but I have a gorgeous hunpie who looks like Captain Nemo, bc I'm happy being a woman, I don't nag, I love to laugh with him, and we're planning on running away after retirement in 5 years, and sailing around the world. We hope our combined 8 children will periodically join our adventure. Only bitter feminists are complaining while sitting at home. The rest of us are loving life!
I'm more like a giant sea manetee that was cut out of the movie Finding Nemo.
I don't think it's odd at all to be chunky these days. Sadly, Chunky is the norm, and I am chunky, but not Norm (who sadly recently died).
It sounds though that you own who you are, and don't think it is positive your chunky, but you are great in spite of your added volume. I agree with you on that, and would say we aren't who we look like.
Wow, the sounds fantastic, Ruff. Your husband is a lucky guy! I suspect that your final sentences hold the truth: most women are like most men: getting on with things and having the best life possible!
First you know how to sail. Automatic win in my book. At a certain age the wall spares no woman. In the end young men you may end up with a woman that is not very nice and not fun to be around as when your chemicals were overflowing. Being obese is a choice now and everyone knows it. I just ran into and dropped a large chunk off of me this year. Such is life or buy new clothes
Can we keep my wife out of this conversation, Jimmy? :)
I am overweight as well, and make no mistake. women are not lining up to date me, especially sans a half a leg. Although maybe I should lean in, buy a peg leg, invest in a parrot and hang around Jimmy Buffett tribute band concerts, that might be my pool of women.
Don’t forget the eyepatch
Yes, to the eyepatch.
Your sense of humor makes you high-value!🤩
Good news! August 29 is Jimmy Buffett Day! Pirates galore!
www.margaritaville.com
"A Pirate Looks at Forty" (his "A-1-A" album)
Reminds me of the 2nd grade joke of Woodrow the one-eyed boy inviting Margaret, the one-legged girl, if she’d like to go to the school dance on Friday night:
- Would I? Would I?!?!?? she replied all excited.
To which he angrily responded:
- Wood eye? Fine, forget it then, Peg-leg, Peg-leg!!!
Sorry. The 1980s. All jokes flowed, good and bad.
In the 90s I think it was called the “muffin top”
It was unattractive then as now
Also made for a horrible country song.
Muffin Top, I can see...
Muffin Top I can see.
the only thing more boring than soccer is...women's soccer ;)
We’ll be watching the WNBA like the films in Clockwork Orange, with our eyes held wide with paper clips and head strapped into a jig. And we’ll love it. And we can get another Covid jab while we’re at it. I can’t wait. Not!
“Please sir, can I have more…?”
“More??? MORE?!?!”
That's really funny, and also probably true.
It's hard to be satirical these days when reality keeps beating you to the punch...
Yep. Imagine how tough it is working at the Babylon Bee. Reality is always one step crazier.
Bahahaha....meanwhile they dog out the best player the league has ever had that people actually WANT to watch. They are the biggest group of BOOBS(in an intellectual sense) the country has seen in a while.
Clark brought some new eyeballs, her reward, being labelled a racist, and her fans labelled racist. You will watch a bunch of angry left wing black lesbians, or you will watch nothing at all isn’t a very good selling point.
Very true. Most people only watch to see CC - and the racist hoes who try to injure her.
Coming this fall, sports mandates.
Well, I'll respect distances for that one - about 100 miles
🤣
For fun, ask people if they can name a single WNBA team...so far, it's nobody...
The WNBA is just as pathetic, if not more, rhan the NBA that supports it.
Throw CNN and MSNBC into that surefire package.
If there's one work I could make required reading for American voters, it would be Thomas Sowell's 'Basic Economics'.
https://jmpolemic.substack.com/p/documented-facts
That's the book I most wish I'd read as a teenager instead of as a 30something.
I gave it to my oldest but he didn't read it. The pleasant surprise was that he told me he'd already seen a bunch of videos of Sowell on YouTube. Maybe someday he'll read the book. He's going to college anyway but at least he's a business major and might find something of some value from his mountain of debt.
Or books by the late Walter Williams. Walter was an excellent "explainer" of economics.
Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson is a good one too.
Brutal tweet I saw yesterday:
"There are roughly 144 players in WNBA.
If the league loses 50 million…
They owe the league about $347,222 each."
https://x.com/smcroasters/status/1946893507286741476
That's immediately what I jumped to when I saw these t-shirts: do these players actually understand what they are asking for? They are worse than worthless because they generate losses.
We read a book called “Boys Adrift” by Leonard Sax when our two boys were in high school. Great book. It’s about the benefits of boys going into the trades instead of university and how crucial trades are to the economy. We decided at that point the kids would pay for their own school. We weren’t going to finance a degree because that was “how it’s done”. Both boys decided to become heavy duty mechanics. $10k for school, no student loans, high wages and constant job offers. Huge sense of accomplishment for them and for us as their parents!
You made the right choice. My daughter is just finishing her 4 year BA degree - 4 frigging years - in music. We've worked our butt off to get her through because she's really talented. Haven't had the courage yet to tell her what the job market is like.
Thanks, IS! http://bit.ly/4f1TsvT
I’ve said for at least a decade that your income is in direct relation to the rarity of your skillset. It’s all supply and demand, all the way down.
As a hi school dropout & veteran, now comfortably retired after 50 years as a yacht captain, I couldn’t agree more.
Could a high school dropout even succeed in enlisting today?
I have no idea…but I’d like to think it’ll never come up again.
The reason the women's professional sports (WNBA, soccer) generate FAR less revenue than their male counterparts is pretty simple - it is an inferior product. I'm all for supporting women in sports and the benefits that come from athletic achievement and participation in sports. But it is a simple fact that the best professional women's basketball or soccer team would lose to a good boys high school junior varsity team at least 50% of the time. So it is no surprise that they do not generate the number of eyeballs (in seats and on screens) and commensurate revenue that their male counterparts do. The whole "pay us what we are worth" canard is a joke - the market is telling you what you are worth, and you are being paid FAR in excess of the value you provide. The response to that request should be "How about this, we need X dollars to run this league (pay for arenas, officials, all the other aspects of operations that go into putting the games on) We'll subtract that from the total revenue generated, make not a single dime of profit, and you can divide up whatever is left on whatever basis you like. Sound reasonable?" They would make much less than they are making today. And I'd love to see how they decided to split the pot!
And let's not forget they had an actual man playing on one of their teams. His name was Brittany greiner. Whatever his real name is...
When he was in prison in Russia he was put in the men's prison because he's a man. But people kept insisting he was actually a woman. Even though his wife gave birth apparently using his little swimmers.
And now he has come out and admitted he's actually a man. But all this time he was playing for the wnba! So wtf?
It makes one question what's so special about the WNBA if men can play in it. The whole thing is a scam.
I can't wait for an NBA stud to come out and play in the WNBA and break all the records in every category.
An NBA benchwarmer would break all the WNBA records. Will Thomas was near dead last competing as a man and broke multiple NCAA records as a "woman".
There are many great women's sports. A lot of my students are into netball, and that's a pretty cool sport. However, whenever a sport is both male and female, the male part tends to be better. No disrespect to women, but that's just how it is.
Totally agree. Personally, I think women's volleyball is the best women's team sport and I prefer it to men's volleyball, where the ball hardly ever crosses over the net more than 3 times in a point (often less). Great athleticism in the women's game and great points. Nebraska women's volleyball team getting over 90,000 spectators at the football stadium for a match a couple years ago is a great example of a women's sport getting real, and not just symbolic, fan support.
Good economics lesson. Really Basic 101 Economics applied at high level sports. Things are changing. Where I live, any good electrician, plumber, carpenter, handy man, and lawn service can make a FORTUNE. Many have a two month, or longer, schedule of waiting clients. It isn't in the degree you hold anymore; it is what can you do to help support 'living'.
I'm really old but I work as a handyman. I could work 24/7 if I wanted too. To be good at it, you have to have decades of experience great problem solving skills and you have to be healthy and strong.
I only work for a small circle of rich people, mostly ladies. They will wait weeks for me to get around to them. Great service and scarce competition equals easy living.
Good for you.
Beware old cats, esp. cougars.
Gato OK though, maybe you could do pro bono for GatoPal
We bought a home in a new thousand home sub division in FL five years ago. There is a young guy late twenties who was out of work so he started mowing lawns. He’s a smart guy, hard worker and every time a new house sold he was there signing them up for lawn service. Five years later he had a big business doing a large per cent of all the homes plus the HOA contract for the common area plus contracts in other areas. Owns trucks a fleet of large mowers. And employees. There’s no question that there are plenty of opportunities for those willing to work
Exactly. These are the key jobs that the Wokies hate but which keep society turning. And they are mostly done still by men.
The jobs the laptop class bitch about when they get the bill.
I often say, as a skilled tradesman, "when robots can do my job we are done as a species."
I have numerous friends in the "laptop class" and fear that AI will put many of them out of work in the near future.
My contractor is 6-8 months out with remodeling jobs (kitchen/bathroom)- he is in his early 40s and makes a ton. He earns every penny!
I quit telling others about the handymen I find. Of course, that doesn't stop them from filling their books with work anyway.
I stopped too, because when I needed someone my friends had already booked them, and I couldn't get anything done, ha ha.
I tell my flock if they give out my number they're fired. If i advertised, I'd never sleep.
I am a licensed DVM. I have a distinct memory of having these stupid arguments with my ABSURDLY unintelligent ex regarding this -- even veterinarians are oversupplied and having difficulty getting decent wages that can actually pay back the cost of the degree. The student debt concept is real.
I am EXTREMELY fortunate to have come from a well-off family. I worked a job at my family pharmaceutical business which paid for my vet degree (it actually DID make sense for me to do this as the business is FDA regulated and we reasoned that FDA would prefer to see me have a doctoral degree for the prestige of it ... Yeah). Had I not had this leg up on life, I would never have been able to afford to pay down the cost of the degree itself.
Granted, this birthright advantage gave me a boatload of KARMIC debt that I had to atone for ... The past ten-odd years of my life have been a rollercoaster ride. That said, I am now cautiously optimistic that things will be looking up from now on. Just have to get my boyfriend out of Space Jail and all will be well.
In our market, Missouri, Vet salaries have increased and it's a job market that favors the employee Vet. This is especially true for those willing to work in a large animal practice.
The cost of vet care for cats and dogs have skyrocketed since Covid
wtf story that vets can’t make money as pet healthcare is as expense as human healthcare
It's called pet insurance and all aspects of any medical practice loves insurance.
As Gato recently mentioned; "If you subsidize something, you'll get more of it."
Pet care is a waste of time. My last dog lived 15 years, took her to vet maybe twice her entire life. Never updated her vaccines, only had whatever the lady we rescued her from gave her. My new puppy we adopted had to have all manner of vaccines, had to be fixed in order to adopt him. He was fine until the procedure to snip his nuts( he was 1 year by then). Whatever they gave him he now breaks out in rashes constantly. He was fine first year until then. Took him to vet they want a special diet and all these tests all cost a lot. We bought some antibacterial wipes and a few other things to wipe him down with anytime we take him out. No more rashes. Animals don’t live long enough to spend thousands of dollars on.
The "vaccines" are the moneymaker, much like with humans. I have a family friend that went into veterinary medicine, and where she ended up working, there is a commission system for anything they manage to push. That kind of incentive is not in the interests of the pet.
Agree with you on those vaccines
I’m shutting down the vaccines for my cats as well except for the rabies and feline leukemia shots
That seems to be a Perfect Storm! Not only Vet Care, but Dog Food and Cat Food. And don't get me started on Hay and Grain for Horses. In our market, due to supply and demand factors employee Vet salaries have gone way up. Then the Drug Companies have continued to RAISE prices for their products and this includes all the Canine, Feline, Equine Vaccines.
What area of vet practice are you in? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm guessing the oversupply is strongly tilted toward the pet care side of the house, not toward large animal.
I actually work in the pharmaceutical industry. I have never actually been in practice. But you are correct, there is a dramatic shortage of large animal vets.
You are spot on. Another consideration, is how much the unnecessary, unproductive, pursuit of college degrees (and the resulting debt, by students below the 20th percentile) has impacted our national debt. Add to that the questionable quality and value of much of the “knowledge” that is “gained”, and college becomes a net loss for both the student and the nation.
Lol...Adam vs. Chris. In 1982 I received a BA ...in Philosophy. A year later I moved to Austin Tx with a one way bus ticket and $100.00. (I was on my way to California to enroll at UCLA to pursue a post graduate degree. After sleeping on a friend's back porch for a year I started a roofing company . Life is good .
Solid analysis. But you’re a bit off on leaning to code.
You’re right about college. For 15 years I’ve been advising to skip the comp sci degree. I’ve participated in hundreds of interviews, and we never look at education. We simply look at your work, or have you do some work while we watch.
Anyone with the aptitude can learn to code from the Internet, or worst case, a six month boot camp.
But coding jobs aren’t going away. For 20 years they’ve been telling us domestic demand will collapse due to offshoring or H1B. Meanwhile my compensation just kept going up and up. The ready explanation: turns out that co-location or culture matters more than we thought. But that’s not the reason. Here’s why:
The demand for software is, practically speaking, infinite. Software is still eating the world.
At my last job we rejected 90% of requests. The payoff had to be something like 10x. The reason was constrained supply of coders. It’s common wisdom that a minority of the coders in any shop produce most of the output, and a minority at the other end is a drag on output. There just aren’t enough skilled coders to be had. Not domestically. Not globally. Coding has been largely work-from-anywhere for a long time now. I was working on a global remote team in 2010.
But what about AI? Isn’t that a new kind of threat? It’s new, but it’s the same kind of threat: supply expansion.
Some shops are going hard on AI for coding. Others are slow because of privacy concerns. I’m indie now, so I get to decide, and I’ve gone all in.
AI immediately increased my output 3-5x. My AI agent is basically a junior developer that I direct and supervise. It writes all the code, and I review and approve it.
But AI today needs a seasoned senior coder like me. It’s nowhere near ready to work under a non-coder. I could be wrong, but I doubt it ever will be. Not soon anyway.
But won’t a 5X productivity gain decimate jobs? No, because as I said, demand is practically infinite. Realignment takes time, but it will happen.
So what about the current hiring slump?
AI is certainly creating a major short run disruption … and a very interesting dilemma. It’s is pushing down demand for junior devs (really driving home the advice to skip college). But this is not sustainable. How will we get senior coders to supervise AI without them first being junior coders? I honestly don’t know the solution, but I do know that it will be solved.
So by all means, learn to code. Just don’t pay a lot for it.
This has been my experience. I have a CS degree from ~20 years ago because that's what you did -- even if you knew the stuff, that piece of paper is what opened the doors. Like most of my era and earlier, any kind of degree was a formality because you had already been programming and building as a kid before choosing that field.
It's different now. Now "learning to code" is treating it more like a vocational school, like training as a cashier, and the product is a junior dev of questionable competence. Rote memorization only goes so far -- you need the knack for abstract logical thinking to truly be valuable because every project and system has its own quirks. Those that can't work like that are the ones AI is really going to replace, and they'll be forced to move on to whatever the next equivalent of "learn to code" is, but like you said, the world does need junior developers with potential.
Where I am, we're being pushed heavily to leverage the AI tools and integrate them into our workflow. It's just a dangerous path right now because they're often subtlety wrong yet very convincing superficially. Junior developers rarely can identify when it's wrong and run with the results, introducing glaring security holes among other problems. Senior developers can see benefit from them, but much of that benefit comes in selective application -- knowing when the task is one it can handle. It's very easy to end up spending more time verifying and fixing the results than if you had just done the work yourself.
Ultimately, in my opinion, the vast majority of people are incapable of doing much more than a mediocre job at anything, whether it's food service or programming or electrical or writing. The world _is_ a living version of the Gell-Mann effect -- many people appear more competent simply because the observer lacks field knowledge. The manual workers will be fine for now, but the knowledge workers are at a precipice. That's the part of the world that AI is going to really shake up.
Try Claude Code if you haven’t. It’s really excellent.
The models themselves are really superb. It’s great at reasoning about problems and looking at my code to understand what’s going on. It definitely makes dumb mistakes, but it also catches things I miss.
What’s really excellent is the workflow. I never have to trust anything. As it implements my prompt, it shows me each code change in turn and allows me to approve or give further instructions. It explains everything it’s doing as it goes.
It has all kinds of other features like allowing me to set up general instructions to always follow (eg, coding patterns and style), GitHub integration, running tests and fixing broken ones, etc.
Even cooler than the productivity improvement, it allows me to work at a much higher level, making the job much more enjoyable.
The major issues I see are "AI" eating the positions of junior coders. Which will come back to bite us in the ass, yes, but the bean counters aren't going to care about that.
That said, I also know that I lean heavily pessimistic, so maybe it'll be fine. I still wouldn't advise anyone in my family to go that route unless they're a natural 20 wizard at it by middle school.
"you need the knack for abstract logical thinking to truly be valuable because every project and system has its own quirks"
It's the ability to understand the quirks that has value. And someone that can understand that will be able to increase quality and productivity by several multiples using AI strategically. AI speeds up highly skilled users; it can only replace them on basic and trivial systems. Complex systems don't always follow the rules...
Let’s just observe how feminism kicks women in the can here again.
Nobody wants a female plumber, so guys have the trades, but what do women have? Healthcare? But men can and do work in that field as well.
If only we hadn’t been conditioned to think real women don’t stay home to raise children. If only women hadn’t so flooded the labor market that it’s financially impossible for many to stay home.
I was told to have a trade because you can't always count on being supported. I'm damn glad I have a work background of sorts (worked p/t when kids were young while grandparents watched them, then f/t after in a specialized niche) so I can support myself after we lost everything during my husband's long illness.
There has to be a happy medium between full on career path and something to keep you from destitution in widowhood.
Agreed! Not just for the wife, but for the husband, so he knows there’s a backup plan. And there are lots of side projects to earn money while raising kids.
I object. I don't give the slightest of fucks what plumbing my plumber has. I care if they can keep my toilet flowing.
Nobody gives a shit what wedding tackle their truck driver has. When I was in CDL school, my primary competition for the #1 slot in the class was a gal, and I certainly didn't dismiss her just because she had a rack, because the only thing that mattered was who could back the damned truck up in a single maneuver.
But I have been to trade school four times since I got my CS degree, and the only field where women even came close to matching male participation was in EMS, and even there it was like 25%, as opposed to 5%.
EMS occasionally requires actual mass. Welding, machining, and truck driving don't, but women never go to school for those, based on my experience.
“Wedding tackle” deserves a like
Good on your for respecting the trades and honest effort
Agreed, Kate. The law of unintended consequences in plain sight.
Unintended? By most I suppose.
If I didn't have a son who does plumbing, I'd actually prefer a female plumber. Women seem more contientious and detail oriented.
Plus, being alone with a strange man in the house is off-putting to many women.
I think women plumbers could make a ton of money.
Sure, an exceptionally strong woman could be a plumber. I just hope if you hire a female plumber that you don’t get one who needs her husband’s help to open jars.
That type of individual isn't going into the trades, or they're not going to last in the field.
Pretty much all residential plumbing is pvc or pex (as opposed to cast iron) and there are tools that do the heavy work anyway.
I just finished replacing my upstairs tub and shower feed and drain lines- so I can say that my obese knee and hip replacement patients create a similar physical strain- yet nursing is still mostly female.
The WNBA's real argument is, "We're just as good as men! You OWE us!"
It's a religious belief. And the bad path we could tread is the one where the religious fanatics of "socialism," manage to make their belief system the dominant one.
A few decades ago when I still loved basketball I tried to like the WNBA as much as I liked the NBA and even went to a game and bought a NY Liberty teeshirt because Teresa Weatherspoon played like a guy. The rest of 'em all looked silly to me with them ponytails bouncing up and down as they traveled the court and I just really couldn't watch with serious attention.
So, yes, exactly.
It is too bad for several generations of kids now that respectable non-college jobs have been meteored out of existence. Anyone else here from NY and of my generation? Remember when salespeople at fine dept. stores had real class? And of course there was me. Secretary though often called a fancier title 'cause I usually worked for the boss at whatever place it was and with a salary and benefits package that often edged out what the college grads were earning or at least kept par with them.
Really time, ain't it, that them Ivies got taken down a peg or dozen? With what we've seen lately those kids on fancy campuses are long overdue for reality to crash in on 'em.
I heard a comedian saying “by 2035 the NBA will be all women, and there’ll be MNBA for men, :)
With LeBron already the flopper he is they're well on their way.
Right! I especially loved the graphic at the end.
Me too.
Gato's topic today is a story that was heard at least a dozen years ago, so what is surprising is that even after three generations of college graduates, if you will, the lesson failed to take root.
Too, the longevity of said job can be tenuous: There are no old basketballers or even engineers for that matter; what does one do for an encore when the curtain falls?
Indeed, that's what I and many of my retirees are wrestling with. As self-employed my entire life, my social security payouts are not that good. And though I was on track to have a comfortable retirement, the whole covid debacle screwed that.
I've been working since I was 8 years old. But now even though I am able to do retail, office work, many of the things that help a company run, I can't find a job.
It turns out AI is doing the analyzing. So you fill out an application on indeed.com, and the company is too lazy to take a look at it. They run it through AI and AI recommends the best candidate. So there's not even the ability to have a sit-down conversation with the owner of the company or the hiring people.
I've spoken with many seniors who have great work ethic, and who would be happy with a part-time job, which means little to no benefits being paid out for them.
Yet we find ourselves not only with a crappy social security payment, we can't find any jobs to supplement it. So I have no sympathy for a company who complains that the new generations don't show up for work or find reasons to go home early. When all of these seniors would be very happy to have that job and would do it well.
Sorry to hear that, Beth. I'm self employed too and Covid hit me sideways as well. I wonder if at some point there's going to be a revolt against AI.
I would hope, but what would that look like?
I'm thinking of writing an article (published where?) about the dangers of letting AI do your hiring for you. The owner has an idea why they started their company. Does AI know? Of course not. I can relate if you need to screen applicants, I used to do the hiring for a huge company. But still, this is just stupid.
I'm turned down because I'm "overqualified." What does that even mean? What a copout. Even I wouldn't use that when I was hiring. I know if I could meet them face to face I'd have a fighting chance. AND, I also know a face to face meeting would help me understand if I even want to work for them.
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change, that lives within the means available and works co-operatively against common threats."
Charles Darwin
I signed with a pro box lacrosse team when I was young. I made more money painting houses than I would playing, so I wasn't badly hurt when they folded.
The WNBA has a problem. Basketball is more boring than even baseball, and the ladies aren't anywhere close to hot. I might actually watch a bunch of hotties bouncing around a basketball court, but their ability to play means nothing.
Even today, pro lacrosse players know they are in a niche sport and salaries will be limited. That is why almost all of them have other gigs (ex indoor lacrosse, high school or college coaching, summer camps and tournaments, etc.) How many WNBA players are hustling like that?