** Hillbilly Elegi-ble for AI **
This was a read to prepare for a job interview with the author/legend himself. In Reprogramming the American Dream, Scott puts pen to paper around his thoughts on AI, technology, and what these two mean for trends in the US. Like my own grandfather, Scott remembers his grandfather who could fix anything, forming the base of American productivity from the age of machinery that provided the launch-pad for both of our educations. He then looks forward, focusing on the effects of technology outside of urban centers, and the promise that future innovation holds.
Scott’s thesis is sober but, for a book written in 2020, remarkably accurate: AI, like technology innovations before it, will improve productivity, which should like all technology innovations before it, improve economic conditions for everybody. Within these confines, Scott nailed it. AI has improved productivity for those that know how to use it (writing this now using ChatGPT Canvas) although the productivity gains are still missing .
Rather than AI ushering in a techno-utopia, the pandemic and remote work have done more to bring economic opportunities to the heartland. I tend to believe that AI will still have a more concentrating effect.
Every innovation—technological, sociological, or otherwise—begins as a crusade, organizes itself into a practical business, and then, over time, degrades into common exploitation. This is simply the life cycle of how human ingenuity manifests in the material world.
We saw this with web 1.0, web 2.0, web 3.0, and we are waiting for something to make AI uniquely different.
** 9th book of 2025 **
Prostrains law, Compilers improve performance every 24 years
Mittleschtant - <50m Annual Income 99.6% of, 60% of jobs, etc.