Your observation is what I think the OP does not take into account.
I don't care if robots play pool. I also think a lot of people will probably agree with me. I care how humans play pool or run marathons. When it comes to human competition in sports, it's not interesting to me if we design a robot to do the sport better.
The original questions was about whether young people are set up for a difficult life, because the terrible adults in their life don't prevent them from attempting to become professional pool players.
My point is this: all jobs...and I mean all jobs, but especially jobs that have previously been insulated from technological advances like entry-level white collar work--the kind young people do--will be disrupted in a negative way sooner rather than later. On top of this challenge, you have to consider the cost of obtaining the education to make people "qualified" for entry-level white collar work is extremely expensive, and it requires most people to take out loans that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. Still further, old people are not retiring, so they are remaining in jobs to prevent middle-aged workers from advancing, and when older people do retire, they are "retiring" to lower-level jobs and working part-time sometimes--maybe the kind of jobs young people would start out with. Would an employer rather have a part-time senior employee with a career of experience or a full-time young person that has no experience?
When you consider the costs of a four-year degree, you have to consider that the market is almost demanding a graduate degree these days for white-collar work...unless your bachelors is in a field where they will allow you to pursue that during your career. Even then, many people still have to get an MBA or some kind of Masters. The real final cost of the education is the cost in money + the cost in time spent in obtaining the degree before any "real" career and earning begins. Should we encourage young people to engage in 5-7 years of expensive education for the chance to compete in a market place that prefers A.I. or older experienced workers? To me, it is a tough sell.
I agree with the sentiment that becoming a world-class pro pool player is hard. The problem is that breaking into lucrative white-collar work is also hard, and it's getting harder by the day and the prospects for this work in the future gets bleaker by the day. (in part, because of A.I.).
I agree that in the near future the trades offer an attractive answer to the problem I mentioned above. However, I live near a well-known and highly reputable trade school. Its student body gets bigger every year and not by a small amount. My little town is busting at the seems with future diesel mechanics, which is fine...for now. How many diesel mechanics do we need? I realize there is a shortage, but year after year of rising class size will chip away at this.
In the near term, most young pool players should probably be diesel mechanics or join the military (of course they might die in the military) as opposed to attempting a career on the WNT. However, we don't know the individual complexities that adorn the decisions of any particular young person. Given the changing dynamics in this area, I think it's good to acknowledge that and let people make their own choices without shouting criticism from the boomer peanut gallery.
I also think the path to being world class at any discipline is extremely hard, but information on how to get there is cheaper and easier to obtain than it has ever been.
If there is a silver lining here, maybe it's that in the future more people will play great pool and more people will enjoy watching great pool, because A.I. is doing our work...right before it kills us.
kollegedave
