Ask HN: What is your fallback job if AI takes away your career?

Hacker News Discussion ↗

Range of fallback jobs people imagine

  • Many mention physical or craft work: plumber, electrician, HVAC, handyman, painter, carpenter, tiler, mechanic, excavator operator, telecom installer, lab tech, nurse, EMT, park ranger, bartender, cook, farmer, dog trainer, nursery/plant work, moonshiner/distiller, innkeeper, hotdog/food truck vendor.
  • Others lean to “creative but low-paid”: YouTuber, content creator, stand-up/entertainer, theater, dating coach, yoga instructor, OnlyFans, “hurting myself on camera”.
  • Some would run small local businesses: repair trades, gear-cutting shop, plant tissue culture business, artisan crafts, software tools for artisans.
  • A sizable group says “retire if I can”, “live off savings/investments”, or “I’ll probably be homeless”.

Perceived AI‑resistant work

  • Hands-on trades and maintenance are widely seen as resilient; robots are viewed as too expensive/complex to replace them soon.
  • Caring and relational roles: therapists, teachers, coaches, dog trainers, marriage counselors, dating coaches, and community work are seen as harder to automate because of the human-connection element.
  • Some believe politics and sales/consulting will be among the last to go.

Optimism: adaptation and new roles

  • One camp rejects a “scarcity mindset”: every technological wave has created new work; people can re-skill and choose new paths.
  • They expect AI to raise productivity and expand markets, freeing time for creativity and new forms of entrepreneurship, especially solopreneurs using AI as leverage.

Pessimism: inequality and collapse

  • Others argue “hope isn’t a strategy” when most people already struggle with basic costs.
  • Fears include: white‑collar work becoming like horses after cars; AI designed explicitly to remove labor; 60–70% of jobs disappearing with nowhere to absorb displaced workers.
  • Some foresee feudal or neo‑serf structures, social unrest, or full socio‑economic collapse; a few mention “eat the rich”, bunkers, and Butlerian‑Jihad‑style resistance half‑seriously.

Transition, therapy, and AI as a tool

  • People worry about a brutal transition: layoffs now, new roles only years later, while individuals lack savings and cheap retraining.
  • Debate around AI therapy: some think AI counselors will push down human rates; others find current systems shallow, error‑prone, and potentially dangerous.
  • A subset plans to stay in tech by helping others use AI: AI performance coach, “AI agent therapist”, expert witness on AI misuse, or general advisor on integrating AI into work.