Does disruptive technology mean a loss of jobs?

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A cobbler in Kuching, Malaysia; I hope no technology comes along to compete with him, because he was so incredibly friendly and amazing. But if it did come along, what would it look like?

My coursemate Simon and I were talking about a really brilliant idea he had for a new business, and I had the thought: does disruptive technology necessarily mean the loss of certain jobs?  I’m thinking of Uber and taxis, AirBNB and hotels, Amazon and Borders/Barnes and Noble, Facebook and MySpace, cars and horses and trains.  If a new technology comes along and disrupts a sector of the economy, does that necessarily mean that some people – not all, but some – will have to change and adapt or face becoming extinct?  Or can disruptive technology act in a way that allows these jobs to change in small ways?

One comment

  1. Disruption means to change in big ways which usually goes along with making processes more efficient and/or faster/cheaper. I don’t think you can have have disruption and changing of jobs in small ways. To change jobs in small ways I can only see bringing incremental change.

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