Ask Bear anything
I wanted to do something to thank my subscribers, but my rules prohibit subscriber-only articles, so this suggested itself to me. Everyone can read the questions and answers, but only paid subscribers and those who can’t afford a subscription can ask questions. This will be an honor system, if I see you’re not a paid subscriber and you’ve asked a question I’ll assume it’s because you can’t afford to subscribe.
There are two answer modes. You can ask for an answer from me, or from Bear. Please specify which you want.
Dear Bear, I just read your essay on the Ballad of Reading Jail in your book and loved it — so thank you.
I'm low income and my dad just lost his computer networking job at a finance corporation and is studying AI, so my household's financial circumstances suddenly became precarious. I don't have a college degree and was thinking of getting a certificate to get a Computer Technician job, but I don't know how useful that will be, and your pieces on AI taking away jobs scared me to be honest. Would be curious if you had any advice on skills to learn to weather the storm for an AI future (anywhere from one to five years in the future) Should I just try my best to go back to college instead?