Comment by m_fayer | Hacker News Reader

Comment by m_fayer | Hacker News Reader

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I’m planning out my 2030 career in idle moments these days. I think it’ll be something akin to a carpenter who builds custom furniture.

I think we’ve barely scratched the surface of what software can do if it’s completely custom built, specifically for individuals or small businesses who could’ve never afforded it, pre-ai. Home automation, health and disease management, all sorts of administration, conversational ai over your life’s data - most people have no clue what’s possible once it’s custom built. With close attention, good design, creativity, and without giving away privacy or independence.

In my limited spare time I’m building up this tapestry of custom services for myself and my loved ones, and having a great time doing it, while trying to learn how I can offer this as a service.

Judging by the reactions I get when showing people what I can do with my phone, and no that’s not available on Google play, I think the demand will be there.

Fit doors and other joinery, you would be surprised at the amount of local facebook community posts I see, with people desperate for someone to re-seat a door or build a stud partition.

Professional joiners and carpenters are too busy with the big jobs to care about small 3-4 hours jobs.

That's my plan at least

Woodworking and making furniture is fun! However, having made both furniture (and ceramics) myself - I think it’s hard to make a living this way. The overwhelming majority of people are used to paying little for these kinds of things. In the case of woodworking a large piece of furniture can take months so you might expect to only produce 3-4 / year unless you’re very good.

Not to say you shouldn’t! But it’s worth being realistic about income compared to (current) software salaries.

Sure. But you're taking my metaphor farther than I intended. Most people understand the basics of furniture, and still prefer to pay Ikea rather than a carpenter. In the case of custom ("bespoke", ugh) software, we'll have to both define and communicate a new category of service. And the customers are likely to be the same sorts of people who will pay a personal trainer or get a private tutor for their kids - and I think that includes a lot more people than are willing to pay for custom furniture. But generally I do agree, this vision is far more hand-wavy than concrete at this point. It is, though, a good time for hand-waving right now.

Engineer as intellectual artisan, not factory worker

Ah I misunderstood your original comment then. I took it more literally as you eventually will become a carpenter (after software)

> I think it’ll be something akin to a carpenter who builds custom furniture.

And who'd buy it?

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