Most people expected that LED lighting would lead to a significant reduction in global lighting power consumption.
Why wouldn’t you? Seems reasonable. The Occam’s Razor outcome. A 60W incandescent bulb costs about $10 a year to run versus $1 for a similar LED version.
But instead, we just use more lighting. Why not? It’s stupid cheap now, so it’s no big deal to add more street lights, office lighting, home lighting, brighter signage, larger displays, etc.
Overall, LED lighting has not significantly lowered the total amount of power that we apply towards lighting in the world.
That’s Jevons Paradox.
Two basic predictions exist today in the software world:
- AI will replace and wipe out all junior software engineering jobs.
- AI will lead to even more software engineering jobs, at all levels.
That second one is Jevons Paradox.
The relative efficiency (cost, speed, etc) of code development will lead to more:
- More apps
- More features
- More ideas prototyped
- More automation
- More refactoring
- More tools
- More, more, more
And the unstoppable train of more will inevitably lead to more software jobs.
Personally, I think AI has unlocked a million ideas I have for little side projects around my house — power outage detection, power monitoring, 3D printing, etc. I’ve had these ideas for a long time, but the amount of work I knew I’d have to put in was a barrier. Now, it’s a piece of cake, all with a $20 a month subscription.
Machines provide leverage. AI provides leverage.
Figure out how to get AI working for you, or you’ll be working for AI.
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