Item — HN Reader

The problem is the current systems are getting less efficient at supporting geniuses financially :

- The Academic Genius (Scholarship -> Tenure) : Supposedly, you have minimal work schedule (the article is pointing to some worsening fault lines)

- The Entrepreneur Genius (VC funds -> Equity) : You supposedly work on what you "love". It its true that you have to be a somewhat business-genius too to navigate the system, but this did work for a lot of people in the last decades. Where are we heading? I don’t know.

- The employee Genius (Salary -> Social security): Well, ChatGPT is again stirring that panic : a lot of knowledge workers jobs may not be immune to automation (soonish). And Social security is not in a good shape.

1 comments

Is the ChatGPT threat to knowledge workers an actual threat (let's say in the timeframe of a decade) or only a perceived one? I don't think at the current performance of ChatGPT and similar models are enough to displace genius knowledge workers. Although I could see the possibility of ChatGPT-like models allowing more work to be done by fewer knowledge workers. And in this scenario, there is no guarantee that an "unfound" genius makes it through the new system.

> are enough to displace genius knowledge workers

I was more referring to the genius that does routine employment work mostly to support himself (like for the cliche example: Einstein working in the patent office while preparing his theories).

> an actual threat (let's say in the timeframe of a decade) or only a perceived one?

This is a big question. chatGPT is pushing some buttons a lot faster than I thought. is it just a jolt? is there an AI winter on the horizon? The fact that these systems are still mostly magical black boxes does not help us predict. So, who knows?