I remember hearing much the same words (cf. “My job is to make myself redundant”) in 2004.

I’m fairly sure this was the goal at least as far back as when ship builders switched from high-skilled artisans to carve each pulley for the sails individually and by hand, to using jigs so that low-skilled carpenters could make a lot that were almost as good for a fraction of the price.

> when ship builders switched from high-skilled artisans to carve each pulley for the sails individually and by hand, to using jigs so that low-skilled carpenters could make a lot...

Sounds like an interesting story, do you have a link :D

I can recommend the book "Better, faster, cheaper - history of manufavturing" which covers this topic among basically manufacturing going to the, literally, stone age.

Sadly not, it was from a TV documentary

Isn’t automation an innovation?

It is, but the gains to this innovation are captured almost entirely by your employer and not by you. Maybe if you're lucky you have a tiny ownership stake in the company, which if you are very lucky maybe entitles you to a tiny percentage of those gains.