Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Commoditization certainly will force incomes down. This has already happened in the arts, where most work is inherently project-based. The more accessible technology has become, the more people have been asked to work for free, because there's a perception that computers have made it all so easy, and more to the point, the ubiquity of computers means that specialist skills no longer seem exotic because they don't require the same sort of specialist equipment that they used to.

The freedom and flexibility is nice, but gigging as a lifestyle can often feel like even more of a rat race because there's no concept of job security, and also because there's a flattening effect so that you have a small number of managers, a larger number of technicians, and a lot of workers. That means promotion and career advancement become heavily tiered. So if you drive for a ride-sharing service and want to get ahead in life, your choices are to drive every waking hour to get money or study programming or management in hopes of getting an entry level job in the company that operates the ride-sharing platform, where your time and dedication as a drive will be considered worthless, if not an active barrier to hiring. I predict that that while we will see flatter hierarchies than in the stereotypical 20th century organization, there'll be a re-emergence of Victorian-style class divisions, because management will be in no hurry to admit the most skilled servants to their ranks.



Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: