

Ask HN: What Jobs Shouldn't Exist Today? - evo_9

And therefore are ripe for disruptions and technical automation.
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J-dawg
Estate Agent. They used to add value in 2 ways: 1) a shop window on the high
street to display homes for sale, and 2) the ability to produce high quality
photographs and printed brochures. Now 1) is a website and 2) is trivial
thanks to digital cameras. The industry seems highly vulnerable to disruption,
and while there are some promising alternatives out there [1], most homes are
still sold through traditional estate agents. Why?

My best guess is that sellers feel uncomfortable showing strangers around
their home and negotiating on price, and avoiding this discomfort is worth the
agent's fee. But this feels like an unsatisfactory explanation.

[1] e.g: [http://www.tepilo.com](http://www.tepilo.com)

~~~
raquo
Basically the whole real estate agents industry is structured in a way to make
itself relevant. There is generally no incentive for the buyer to avoid using
an agent, and in some cases it is hard for the seller to get enough exposure
without an agent because other agents won't work with them.

[http://www.realtor.com/advice/who-pays-the-real-estate-
agent...](http://www.realtor.com/advice/who-pays-the-real-estate-agent/)

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Futurebot
\- Cashiers (already being replaced)

\- Fast food chefs (replacement still in development)

\- Janitors / toilet cleaners (Roomba and friends, still a long way to go)

\- Window washers (bot exists, still not widely used)

\- Fruit pickers (complicated, replacements are apparently happening a fruit
type at a time, lots of development)

\- Street sweeping vehicles (cars have to move out of the way, etc. Smaller
bots would mean streets could get cleaned at any time)

\- Manual garbage recyclers (work is being done in this area, but object
recognition and separation still needs a lot of work, apparently)

Not a job, but still needs big improvements: litterboxes. The automated ones
still have problems: can't use certain kinds of litter, noises can scare cats,
you still have to clean the filters out yourselves. It would be much better if
there was some kind of auto-disposal/self-cleaning system, or even a way to
turn litter into energy.

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falsestprophet
Garment workers: [http://www.softwearautomation.com/our-
products/](http://www.softwearautomation.com/our-products/)

But such automation will likely cause disruption -- real disruption like civic
unrest -- in several countries.

Bangladesh's economy is predominantly textiles, which accounted for 80% of
exports in 2013.

I wonder whether the Bangladeshi government would assassinate people working
the field. That plot would make an interesting indie dark comedy anyway.

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coralreef
Cashiers. I know some stores have self checkout solutions, but it seem like
manually scanning each object isn't the ideal solution. There should be some
sort of array of scanners able to rapidly identify UPCs along a moving
conveyor belt.

~~~
thejteam
Some stores have started a pilot program where they give you a portable
scanner gun and scan the items as you shop. Then you take the scanner to a
cashier and pay. Works real fast.

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gsfgger
This video basically shows them:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU)

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haidrali
Data Entry should not exist because of such advancement in Software bots

