[poorgradstudent]

[quote=no_such_reality]
HR? Employee self service portals, automated background checks, automated hiring screening that frankly does a better job than any but the most specialized HR recruiter.
[/quote]
I hate our Employee Self Service Portal so much. Using it wastes a lot of my time at work.

Our automated hiring screener is awful. We’ve had great candidates whose resumes we only saw because of referrals not make it through the automated screener.

At least right now companies that try to automate these sort of functions end up putting burden on other employees.

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=no_such_reality][quote=carlsbadworker]I think some of the comments are short-sighted. Yes, automation and robots are going to kill manufacturing jobs and retail jobs, but so what? That doesn’t mean overall jobs are going to decline.[/quote]

Retail and Manufacturing? Try white collar. Bye-bye 80-90% of those office white collar jobs.

Accounting, bye-bye.
Human Resources, bye-bye.
Tech Support, bye- bye.
Customer Service Positions, bye-bye.
Legal support positions, bye-bye.
R&D, yep, lots of mid and low level stuff going bye-bye. Automation is seriously letting Pharma consolidate R&D staff.
Tax departments, bye-bye.
Medical support, bye-bye (robots already reading x-rays and results).

True creating positions and sales positions will remain, but a lot of the positions doing the grunt work under the creative designers is going out.

Those people may still be employed, they may even still do something similar to related to it, but they’ll be in a very different organizational structure likely will be either gigging it or trying a startup.[/quote]

What time scale are we talking? 20 years? 30?

In the 3-5 year time frame we’re still a long ways off from a lot of your examples. Think of the last time you tried to use a phone menu or website to get something done. Routine transaction? You probably were successful. Anything beyond the 5-10 most typical activities? You probably needed human intervention.

In my company it could be hugely time saving to be able to streamline the purchasing process, but the existing inventory management software is terrible and cost prohibitive if you have tons of different items that are re-ordered infrequently.

As for R&D in pharma, there have been some significant advances in automation for some tasks, but a lot of the data processing software out there frankly is still awful, and right now companies need to invest a lot in their AI to try to make it remotely better. There also are regulations in place for Development that ultimately require a human to take responsibility for data. There’s also a fun trend that as it becomes easier to generate more and more data, the FDA starts demanding more and more data in submission packets. Funny how that works, but it keeps me in a job.

I do know that there already is a trend towards eliminating accountants for personal taxes, as for a lot of us TurboTax is more accurate and better. The accountant often just serves as a handholder and in some cases a person to point the finger at if something goes wrong down the line.

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=AN]It started in the factory, but it won’t stop there. I heard McDonald is spending tens of millions in automation to supplement their work force. I feel like this will only accelerate. Once McDonald is successful of going mostly automation, I’m sure other fast food chain will follow. Then other casual dining place will do the same as well. Red Robin is already kind of doing this already.[/quote]

Restaurants already have the technology for people to order without human intervention, and it can speed up the process and reduce errors. I’ve ordered Chipotle online in the past. My wife is a big fan of the Starbucks App.

It’s interesting and a bit worrisome, because the service industry has been doing ok in recent decades while manufacturing struggled. But except in cases where a real live human is demanded by consumers, service is likely to decline.

On the flip side, a lot of consumers do still avoid self-service check out lanes except as a last resort.

[poorgradstudent]

Poway has increased a lot too. If you read this site regularly you’ll note there is a relative shortage of homes right now, and RPQ is probably right in the sweet spot of “desirability” and demand.

[poorgradstudent]

High rents are one of the main reasons I can’t call the current home prices a “bubble”. Rents are high in part because supply stinks.

I know way too many people who work in San Diego but live in Chula Vista, Temecula or Ramona. Remember when Santee was thought of as the boonies? Now it’s just another suburb with a tough traffic pinch point heading west on the 52.

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=Rich Toscano]I feel like people aren’t making enough fun of the video.[/quote]

I’m fairly sure she has an awesome skull ring on her right hand.

And those paper charts are amazing.

[poorgradstudent]

In general home ownership is less useful for single guys without kids. One huge perk of being a single guy without kids is if a job opportunity pops up in Seattle or San Francisco or Tokyo you can pick up and go. Buying a place can limit that.

The big perk would be if you are renting for $3,000 a month and can find a place to buy where your mortgage and taxes are less than that, you can potentially free up cash every month. And there are tax benefits for the mortgage deduction, and that single guy making six figures isn’t getting the same deductions those of us with kids get.

I have no clue where housing prices are going to go. All of Rich’s data suggests there is little supply to drive down prices. But the fundamentals seem rather poor if you look at incomes vs. prices. I guess if you go in expecting no appreciation and only look at tax benefits and a mortgage less than current rent it might be a fairly safe bet?

[poorgradstudent]

It’s only going to matter in cases of two relatively equal offers where the seller is looking for an X Factor to tip the scales.

But our neighbors who just sold a couple months ago had two offers of relatively equal nominal value. One all cash who was purchasing as a rental property, the other a family with weaker financing. Our former neighbors went with the all cash offer so now we have renters next door. Fortunately they seem pretty nice so far.

[poorgradstudent]

My neighbors’ house sold 3 weeks ago. Zillow thinks the value has gone up 4% since then.

[poorgradstudent]

The boundaries fascinate me.

The 52 between the Golden Triangle and North Clairemont. Any former UCSD student knows housing gets cheaper south of the 52.

South of the 94 vs. north of the 94.

Crossing the 805 from North Park into City Heights.

East vs. West Chula Vista.

La Mesa, Mira Mesa and Poway are all quite mixed.

San Marcos surprises me, I think of that as the up and coming area for families.

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=flu][quote=The-Shoveler]If you are paying cash you are much better off getting a used car from a private party.

Not many people these days have many thousands of dollars to hand out for a Car so you have less competition for anything over a say 2 or 3 thousand.[/quote]

If I were getting a utility car, that’s what I would do. Unfortunately, this is the first production year of the RF and I don’t feel like waiting.[/quote]

The fact it’s the first production year means you probably won’t be able to get the sort of deals that will be floating around next year.

[poorgradstudent]

I would argue a school that draws mostly poor kids and has over half the kids passing might be doing better than a school that pulls from a wealthy neighborhood and only 90% of the kids are passing. Parental incomes correlate strongly with test scores, so I really want to see how a school does relative to the population it is working with.

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=The-Shoveler]Still has a few years to run IMO. (well unless something else causes an economic crash that is NOT housing).

When they have been overbuilding for a few years then I would become concerned.[/quote]

Yup. Housing prices are high, but supply is thin, so there’s no downward pressure on prices. And it’s not like there are a bunch of housing projects being built all over San Diego County.

I think these commercials are more a sign of the times that a lot of people currently have inflated home values relative to what they paid and probably wouldn’t mind getting some of that cash in their pocket. I wouldn’t be shocked if prices dip at some point in the next couple years, but I expect more of a “typical” correction than a big bubble popping.

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=The-Shoveler]I don’t think I will ever buy a new car or any car from a dealer again.

Just my personal experience, I never seem to be able to get a deal at a dealer.
[/quote]

Both of our cars were of the 6,000 mile “used” variety. One was a car that was purchased, driven around for a while, and returned when they didn’t like it. The other I believe had been a loaner.

I’ve encountered way more flexibility on the price of used cars vs. new, as they are often happy to unload it for $500 more than the discounted price they paid.

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=harvey]Most car buyers don’t even consider price and only consider payments. For this reason it’s very plausible that TrueCar buyers typically get a better price than average. [/quote]

This explains why the last time I bought a car I basically had to yell at the guy to stop trying to manipulate the payment and give me the bottom line figure. It’s fun being good at math and being able to spot a shell game on the spot.

[Author]

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