"waves of technological innovation" have gotten faster over time, "students might now find themselves learning skills in college that are obsolete by the time they graduate"

cyu@sh.itjust.worksbanned from community to Technology@lemmy.world – 163 points –
Indeed's CEO says college students might be learning skills that could go 'obsolete' once they graduate — all because of AI
businessinsider.com
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This has to be the stupidest AI take yet.

Was learning to do math made "obsolete" by calculators?

One thing I found especially dumb is this:

Jobs that require driving skills, like truck and taxi drivers, as well as jobs in the sanitation and beauty industries, are least likely to be exposed to AI, the Indeed research said.

Let's ignore the dumb shit Tesla is doing. We already see self-driving taxis on the streets. California allows self-driving trucks already, and truck drivers are worried enough to petition California to stop it.

Both of those involve AI - just not generative AI. What kind of so-called "research" has declared 2 jobs "safe" that definitely aren't?

I mean, to some degree ... yes. Day to day, I do very little math ... if it's trivial I do it in my head if it's more than a few digits, I just ask a calculator... because I always have one and it's not going to forget to carry the 1 or w/e.

Long division, I've totally forgotten.

Basic algebra, yeah I still use that.

Trig? Nah. Calc? Nah.

You're not going to college level math to do basic calculations. You're going to college level math because you need to learn how to actually fully understand and apply mathematical concepts.

I hear this all the time that there's some profound mathematical concept that I had to go to college to learn ... what exactly is that lesson? What math lessons have changed your life specifically?

Also the comment I was replying to was about doing math. Mathematical "concepts" aren't exactly "doing math."

Calculus was a game changer. Combined with physics it completely changed my view of the world.

In what way?

It's hard to explain. Calculus was integral (hah!) to understanding a lot of physics and allowed me to understand better how we know about our world.

For example - just being able to better understand the equations of motion was eye-opening. There were velocity and acceleration equations we'd learned previously but now I understood how we knew them. I could also now derive a function for change in acceleration (aka jerk)!

Trig had a similar impact though that is taught at a high school level not college. The two combined are quite useful for programming things with motion.

Honestly, if you have to ask, you'll never know. You're just not emotionally invested in the real world and if you were, you'd see the value of high-level math everywhere. But you don't, and that's entirely your fault. No one is going to inspire you for you.

So you're still doing math then. And using a calculator as a tool to assist you.

Just like we'll be doing with AI.