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Re:100% Unemployment: on keeping busy when the robots take over by dragonwriter on Tuesday February 17, 2015 @07:36PM (#9066254)
> and you have no way of automating yourself because you don't know squat about programming.

Automating existing work is more than just programming; a big part of it is expertise provided by people knowledgeable about the existing workflow. None of the projects I've been on that involved automating existing work involved only programmers and no one with experience doing the work.

Re:100% Unemployment: on keeping busy when the robots take over by TeMPOraL on Tuesday February 17, 2015 @07:40PM (#9066277)
Yes, I know, and I appreciated that fact in the post upthread. The point here is, if you go with the suggestion of 'redemeer that "if you get automated away, you get 0", said accountant will have no incentive to help with the automating, and every incentive to make it as hard as possible - which I think is not the result we want to have. To get a happy ending for everyone, we need coordination, not competition.
Re:100% Unemployment: on keeping busy when the robots take over by dragonwriter on Tuesday February 17, 2015 @07:43PM (#9066298)
> The point here is, if you go with the suggestion of 'redemeer that "if you get automated away, you get 0", said accountant will have no incentive to help with the automating

If you go with a principal that if you are involved in automating the job away, you get some reward, the accountant may have some incentive to help (especially if it is likely to happen, but with perhaps lesser quality -- but still perhaps a net cost savings to the company -- anyway, which would result not only in the company getting less than if the accountant was actively involved, but the accountant getting less as well.)

Re:100% Unemployment: on keeping busy when the robots take over by redeemer on Tuesday February 17, 2015 @07:46PM (#9066312)
> "if you get automated away, you get 0"

No, I actually said the opposite.

If you get automated away, by yourself or by anyone else, you instantly get the bonus and you're instantly fired.

The accountant has every incentive to either be an amazing accountant so that any automation would be a pale imitation (everyone wins), or he can choose to automate himself away, move to the next job, automate himself away and pick up the bonus there, and so on (everyone gets their due).

This is competition, and I think it's a happy ending for meritocracy. The only people who lose are those who desire to continue to be paid while not generating value.

Re:100% Unemployment: on keeping busy when the robots take over by TeMPOraL on Tuesday February 17, 2015 @07:49PM (#9066324)
Oh, I'm sorry. After re-reading your comment for the third time I realized you said something exactly opposite than what I thought.