Any young person I talk to who expresses an interest in entrepreneurship, I mention the trades. People are always going to need their toilets to run, their hair cut, their locks to work. People like electricity. Get into a business with never ending demand, do it well, you’re going to be okay financially.
What I find sad is how much the education system still shades the trades. It’s a bad look and I hope more young people see through that. Massive red flag for higher ed to turn its nose up at the trades.
I'm absolutely the same. A lot of my friends who are unsure about what they want to do next are thinking about going back to university in hopes that they'll figure it out there.
Yes. Very expensive. And it’s getting worse, at least here in the US. Propped up by WAY too much debt.
I keep thinking professors are going to start finding ways to teach and earn on the side or in the 2nd half of their career, similar to what you see big 5 editors do, or big 4 accounting CPAs. Skills in trades more readily allow for people to build their own businesses.
I have three degrees; yet, I urged my son to consider a trade. We’ve long seen college as the place smart people go. But smart people go where they can actually build a future.
I think that’s it; consider it. There’s plenty of advice or stories we tell our kids that they may or may not follow. Or some of it sinks in later. I had a wonderful experience at college, was able to do it with modest loans. I want to be able to provide that for my kids. But a hill I will die on is that college is not the only way. My support for them as a young adult isn’t undergraduate degree dependent.
I work with an organization that built a makerspace and tool library specifically to reconnect people, especially youth and young adults, with the trades and creative industries. What’s staggering is how many young people didn’t even know these careers existed, let alone that they were viable paths. It’s not that they weren’t interested, it’s that nobody ever talked to them about it. The education system didn’t just overlook the trades, it erased them.
That sounds awesome! If you don’t mind sharing the name of the org here or in a DM I’d love to follow it/support.
I know what you mean about the education system. 3 of my 4 parents were teachers. Some of my high school teachers and college professors were some of the most influential people in my life. I struggle with the education system, which is very broken. We’re lucky as many good people stay and work with young people in spite of the system headwinds and systemic corralling toward academia and white collar jobs over trades.
The organization is based in Compton, CA and called The Makers Hub. It is a very small start-up organization that just completed its first year of operations. They are trying to expand to other schools within the next year.
One of the most frustrating things was a a director within the district claiming they already had a makerspace and workforce development program within a school we were looking to expand to. Spoiler Alert - they did not. At all. It is why the school asked us to consider them for the program.
The whole interaction highlighted how unjust and broken the system is. When you're directors are not reflective of the communities they serve, completely detached from reality, how are we supposed to inspire young folks?
I truly admire how the team is working on addressing these challenges and I know they are not alone in this struggle.
Awesome. I live in LA. I don’t have a ton of connectivity with schools and LAUSD is a beast of an org that I wouldn’t pretend to know how to navigate. I know a few nfps that may be interested in what Makers Hub is doing. Appreciate you sharing.
Absolutely. I just looked up The Makers Hub and my employer and one of my clients appears to have done some work with them already. I’m looking into this. Encouraging. Small world too! 🙏
So much of this resonates. We built entire systems around abstract skills and prestige instead of practical needs and personal wiring. As someone who leans on interpretive tools in leadership, I keep coming back to this: if the systems we build don’t connect to real people, they won’t last. Meaning matters. Connection matters. We can’t automate our way out of that.
I actually think healthcare plays a major role in this discussion.
A major point of contention in this debate is the fact that blue collar jobs are usually exponentially harder on your body. Parents want their kids to earn more money than they did while working less. Trades don’t often fit that paradigm. A lot of this sentiment originates from the west & year earlier generations had on their bodies caused in good part by the lack of a healthcare system to support their needs.
How many farmers, mechanics, plumbers, etc would be happier in their jobs & daily lives with affordable massage, physical therapy, medicine and the ability to get it without major hassles or debt?!
Obviously this extends to all people. We all feel underserved by contemporary health systems. But I think the trades feel it more and we underestimate the vastness of the trades. Tattoo artists, estheticians, hair stylists all have injuries from hunching over or repetitive motions.
We have to fix foundational issues like this in order to turn the tide on placing people into career paths that are tough on the body.
I’m not well-versed on the data in the is space, but we all live it every day. Correlation is not causation, but I stand behind the hypothesis. We’ll have to see what google scholar turns up
It’s more fundamental than having access to healthcare or not. By nature, doing a kind of labor with your body for 40 or 50 years means you wear your body down. Working physically is a bet on your body not giving out before you hit retirement age. Transitioning to knowledge work once you become disabled in a way that prevents you from working your trade is unfortunately very difficult.
you introduce a whole other discussion - transitioning from manual labor to knowledge work is not a given. People may not want to do it, may not feel secure in the transition, may need to acquire new skills to do it. We have some systems in place to support this transition (junior college, 4 year college, certification programs, career counseling, mentorships, etc), but they are not well understood or known by the public and are often receiving too little attention from political forces controlling funding and prioritization.
I do think that people who are essentially denied the health care they need to live a healthy life during manual labor/skilled labor careers experience an inherent lack of trust in the ability of other public and private systems to support them to achieving other goals (ie transition to new job types). Experience with foundational systems within a society shapes people attitudes towards future experiences
Good points. One thing I feel strongly about, is that overfocusing on blue collar work versus knowledge work is itself harmful.
I've done both, and because of some injuries and life events, my body is no longer suited to blue collar work, and I'm in my thirties. If I hadn't developed up my capability for knowledge work, it would be quite hard to find work.
There is no reason one can't be a plumber-philosopher, an electrician-poet, a lawncare AND business coach. I'd argue that taking that path is a more secure approach to life than swinging from side of the pendulum to the other.
I love how you weave this together; the death of the corporate worker exposing how chasing external markers without inner anchoring was always going to collapse. And that line "Trained for stability in an era of disruption" 🔥. I can actually sense my kids (9 and 12) picking up on what you’re tracking and naming here. Thank you, this is such important work you're doing. Looking forward to more!
It’s been very interesting moving to Australia from the UK - the trades here are hugely well respected and well paid, and in general it is promoted as a positive career path in a way that was never the case when I was growing up in London (where university was the be all and end all).
There’s a “meaninglessness premium” behind many well-paid jobs. Imagine earning $30k as a primary school teacher in an underfunded neighborhood — high effort, high meaning. Now imagine making the same to sit in a wealthy family’s mansion five days a week, just to be available to tutor their child for one unpredictable hour each day. Technically easier, but more draining in its own way. You’re not just trading time — you’re trading presence for purposelessness, and that comes at a cost.
Just read the full series. Definitely hit the nail on the head with how I'm feeling and many others like me. I'm a software engineer and now I'm trying to figure out how I survive when I hit 40, 50, or 60 years of age.
Would love to see a series on helping people transition into finding what DOES energize them! Because I think that's what people need right now. I for one would be extremely appreciative!
"We're the first to be educated for jobs that ceased to exist before we retired"
You are not. You are just younger than us.
The advent of desktop publishing in the early nineties demolished thousands of print and allied trades. Typesetters, plate makers, negative and positive film makers (called Camera departments), paste up artists, older graphic designers with scalpel skills and letraset who couldn't cope with relearning their skills through a screen.
Excellent article, the trades live on throughout it all.
I see another side of the problem: before, people usually needed work done in their homes only when it was something serious. Not just putting in a new tile or painting a wall, but the kind of thing you simply couldn’t do yourself, even with the help of friends or family.
Now it’s different. The new generation is well educated—every second person has a degree—but most don’t know how to change a faucet or fix a plug. Even painting a wall is treated like some exotic skill. At the same time, yes, houses constantly need maintenance, there are fewer plumbers and electricians, and suddenly everyone is looking for help with even the smallest repairs.
Sometimes it feels like a split between “Eloi and Morlocks”—handy work is ranked so low on the social ladder that bringing it up among “educated” people feels out of place, even a bit embarrassing. I’m from Northern Europe, and my dad was a builder and road worker. Whenever I mention that in conversation, there’s this pause, like people don’t know how to react.
If i could go back I would 100% learn a trade. Tbh even at my age im thinking of taking courses around my day job in the dire case that I one day get replaced by AI. As you point out, I’ve seen it happen to friends already. A friend of mine was working as a tester for systems and softwares etc and got let go at the start of this year. He still can’t find anything remotely related. Prior to that he was on a solid salary working comfy hours from home. Now he’s been replaced by a machine
Great article. The same thing applies here in the US. I was raised in a blue collar household, where I was taught a man’s worth is measured by what he can make, fix, or build. And I learned how to build things, fix things, operate machine tools. Sadly, I didn’t instill those values into my kids. But I will teach my grandchildren these things. They are gonna need it.
Most companies will see AI as a way to cut jobs and drive profits. But I want to see something else.
In Range, David Epstein shows how chess changed once machines entered the game. At first, they crushed humans. Then came “centaur” chess — human + machine together — which turned out to be the strongest form of play. The machine handled calculation; the human brought strategy, creativity, intuition.
I think, that’s the real possibility of AI: to strip away the drudgery and let us focus on art, depth, and culture.
I have doubts AI will be working that way anytime soon. Every AI company is striving to make it a replacement for humans and wait until it starts trying to sell you things.
>School taught us to chase prestige, follow templates, want what everyone wanted. It never taught us to understand our own wiring. What energises versus drains us. How we actually work versus how we think we should work.
I feel this one. It's not just school though. It's a failure of parents and mentors, to pay a keen eye and guiding hand to their charges. That's the duty of elders.
Making the pivot is the difficult bit. Trying to throw yourself into the grinder of applications all over again, trying to explain even to blue collar interviewers the difficult, and social incorrect, articulation of why it is you want to switch trades, and to theirs in particular.
My first 6-figure year was a self-employed service provider (a hairstylist to be exact)…so when I transitioned to corporate, I owned all those transferable skills and achieved 6-figures there too. No coincidence and trade schools still matter.
Matt thank you very much for this series of articles. You perfectly described a messy situation that is ongoing not only in the US but around the world.
The path that was paved and sold to people between 40-20 was a model that only worked for people in their 50-60.
And today many are still following this way trying to outplay the system. Unfortunately and like many pointed out. We’ve been sold universities and white collar jobs as the graal.
Today I’m at this crossroads and I have no issue turning my back on those jobs.
Any young person I talk to who expresses an interest in entrepreneurship, I mention the trades. People are always going to need their toilets to run, their hair cut, their locks to work. People like electricity. Get into a business with never ending demand, do it well, you’re going to be okay financially.
What I find sad is how much the education system still shades the trades. It’s a bad look and I hope more young people see through that. Massive red flag for higher ed to turn its nose up at the trades.
I'm absolutely the same. A lot of my friends who are unsure about what they want to do next are thinking about going back to university in hopes that they'll figure it out there.
A very very expensive way to do things 😅
Yes. Very expensive. And it’s getting worse, at least here in the US. Propped up by WAY too much debt.
I keep thinking professors are going to start finding ways to teach and earn on the side or in the 2nd half of their career, similar to what you see big 5 editors do, or big 4 accounting CPAs. Skills in trades more readily allow for people to build their own businesses.
I have three degrees; yet, I urged my son to consider a trade. We’ve long seen college as the place smart people go. But smart people go where they can actually build a future.
I think that’s it; consider it. There’s plenty of advice or stories we tell our kids that they may or may not follow. Or some of it sinks in later. I had a wonderful experience at college, was able to do it with modest loans. I want to be able to provide that for my kids. But a hill I will die on is that college is not the only way. My support for them as a young adult isn’t undergraduate degree dependent.
I work with an organization that built a makerspace and tool library specifically to reconnect people, especially youth and young adults, with the trades and creative industries. What’s staggering is how many young people didn’t even know these careers existed, let alone that they were viable paths. It’s not that they weren’t interested, it’s that nobody ever talked to them about it. The education system didn’t just overlook the trades, it erased them.
That sounds awesome! If you don’t mind sharing the name of the org here or in a DM I’d love to follow it/support.
I know what you mean about the education system. 3 of my 4 parents were teachers. Some of my high school teachers and college professors were some of the most influential people in my life. I struggle with the education system, which is very broken. We’re lucky as many good people stay and work with young people in spite of the system headwinds and systemic corralling toward academia and white collar jobs over trades.
The organization is based in Compton, CA and called The Makers Hub. It is a very small start-up organization that just completed its first year of operations. They are trying to expand to other schools within the next year.
One of the most frustrating things was a a director within the district claiming they already had a makerspace and workforce development program within a school we were looking to expand to. Spoiler Alert - they did not. At all. It is why the school asked us to consider them for the program.
The whole interaction highlighted how unjust and broken the system is. When you're directors are not reflective of the communities they serve, completely detached from reality, how are we supposed to inspire young folks?
I truly admire how the team is working on addressing these challenges and I know they are not alone in this struggle.
Awesome. I live in LA. I don’t have a ton of connectivity with schools and LAUSD is a beast of an org that I wouldn’t pretend to know how to navigate. I know a few nfps that may be interested in what Makers Hub is doing. Appreciate you sharing.
Any time! Thank you for sharing their mission!!
Absolutely. I just looked up The Makers Hub and my employer and one of my clients appears to have done some work with them already. I’m looking into this. Encouraging. Small world too! 🙏
So much of this resonates. We built entire systems around abstract skills and prestige instead of practical needs and personal wiring. As someone who leans on interpretive tools in leadership, I keep coming back to this: if the systems we build don’t connect to real people, they won’t last. Meaning matters. Connection matters. We can’t automate our way out of that.
Totally. As long as you can learn to empathise and relate to others' emotions you'll be fine!
people can relate to their OWN emotions? that’s news
Yes the association of prestige to certain occupations was the very export of…. Capitalism
I actually think healthcare plays a major role in this discussion.
A major point of contention in this debate is the fact that blue collar jobs are usually exponentially harder on your body. Parents want their kids to earn more money than they did while working less. Trades don’t often fit that paradigm. A lot of this sentiment originates from the west & year earlier generations had on their bodies caused in good part by the lack of a healthcare system to support their needs.
How many farmers, mechanics, plumbers, etc would be happier in their jobs & daily lives with affordable massage, physical therapy, medicine and the ability to get it without major hassles or debt?!
Obviously this extends to all people. We all feel underserved by contemporary health systems. But I think the trades feel it more and we underestimate the vastness of the trades. Tattoo artists, estheticians, hair stylists all have injuries from hunching over or repetitive motions.
We have to fix foundational issues like this in order to turn the tide on placing people into career paths that are tough on the body.
Wow this is a really interesting side to this analysis. Thanks for sharing. I hadn't really thought about it.
Do you have any recommendations as to where I could learn more about this?
I’m not well-versed on the data in the is space, but we all live it every day. Correlation is not causation, but I stand behind the hypothesis. We’ll have to see what google scholar turns up
It’s more fundamental than having access to healthcare or not. By nature, doing a kind of labor with your body for 40 or 50 years means you wear your body down. Working physically is a bet on your body not giving out before you hit retirement age. Transitioning to knowledge work once you become disabled in a way that prevents you from working your trade is unfortunately very difficult.
you introduce a whole other discussion - transitioning from manual labor to knowledge work is not a given. People may not want to do it, may not feel secure in the transition, may need to acquire new skills to do it. We have some systems in place to support this transition (junior college, 4 year college, certification programs, career counseling, mentorships, etc), but they are not well understood or known by the public and are often receiving too little attention from political forces controlling funding and prioritization.
I do think that people who are essentially denied the health care they need to live a healthy life during manual labor/skilled labor careers experience an inherent lack of trust in the ability of other public and private systems to support them to achieving other goals (ie transition to new job types). Experience with foundational systems within a society shapes people attitudes towards future experiences
Good points. One thing I feel strongly about, is that overfocusing on blue collar work versus knowledge work is itself harmful.
I've done both, and because of some injuries and life events, my body is no longer suited to blue collar work, and I'm in my thirties. If I hadn't developed up my capability for knowledge work, it would be quite hard to find work.
There is no reason one can't be a plumber-philosopher, an electrician-poet, a lawncare AND business coach. I'd argue that taking that path is a more secure approach to life than swinging from side of the pendulum to the other.
Yes!! Very well said Chris.
I love this comment - yes! More mixing and matching on skills, jobs and careers.
Love this, it gives a much broader and interconnected view of how to solve problems and show up for others.
I love how you weave this together; the death of the corporate worker exposing how chasing external markers without inner anchoring was always going to collapse. And that line "Trained for stability in an era of disruption" 🔥. I can actually sense my kids (9 and 12) picking up on what you’re tracking and naming here. Thank you, this is such important work you're doing. Looking forward to more!
Thanks so much! Really glad it resonates.
It’s been very interesting moving to Australia from the UK - the trades here are hugely well respected and well paid, and in general it is promoted as a positive career path in a way that was never the case when I was growing up in London (where university was the be all and end all).
I have a lot of friends who have moved to Aus for that reason exactly.
Why do you think there is such a different in the way that the trades are viewed between the UK and Aus?
There’s a “meaninglessness premium” behind many well-paid jobs. Imagine earning $30k as a primary school teacher in an underfunded neighborhood — high effort, high meaning. Now imagine making the same to sit in a wealthy family’s mansion five days a week, just to be available to tutor their child for one unpredictable hour each day. Technically easier, but more draining in its own way. You’re not just trading time — you’re trading presence for purposelessness, and that comes at a cost.
Really great point!
Just read the full series. Definitely hit the nail on the head with how I'm feeling and many others like me. I'm a software engineer and now I'm trying to figure out how I survive when I hit 40, 50, or 60 years of age.
Would love to see a series on helping people transition into finding what DOES energize them! Because I think that's what people need right now. I for one would be extremely appreciative!
Thanks so much! Glad you liked it.
Since posting this I have written a couple of articles talking about this very topic :))
"We're the first to be educated for jobs that ceased to exist before we retired"
You are not. You are just younger than us.
The advent of desktop publishing in the early nineties demolished thousands of print and allied trades. Typesetters, plate makers, negative and positive film makers (called Camera departments), paste up artists, older graphic designers with scalpel skills and letraset who couldn't cope with relearning their skills through a screen.
Excellent article, the trades live on throughout it all.
Thanks!
I see another side of the problem: before, people usually needed work done in their homes only when it was something serious. Not just putting in a new tile or painting a wall, but the kind of thing you simply couldn’t do yourself, even with the help of friends or family.
Now it’s different. The new generation is well educated—every second person has a degree—but most don’t know how to change a faucet or fix a plug. Even painting a wall is treated like some exotic skill. At the same time, yes, houses constantly need maintenance, there are fewer plumbers and electricians, and suddenly everyone is looking for help with even the smallest repairs.
Sometimes it feels like a split between “Eloi and Morlocks”—handy work is ranked so low on the social ladder that bringing it up among “educated” people feels out of place, even a bit embarrassing. I’m from Northern Europe, and my dad was a builder and road worker. Whenever I mention that in conversation, there’s this pause, like people don’t know how to react.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Yes totally the new norm is university, now to be "handy" feels like a totally exotic skills you're right.
If i could go back I would 100% learn a trade. Tbh even at my age im thinking of taking courses around my day job in the dire case that I one day get replaced by AI. As you point out, I’ve seen it happen to friends already. A friend of mine was working as a tester for systems and softwares etc and got let go at the start of this year. He still can’t find anything remotely related. Prior to that he was on a solid salary working comfy hours from home. Now he’s been replaced by a machine
Thanks for sharing this experience.
How old are you?
33!
Oh you've got loads of time!! 😅
Great article. The same thing applies here in the US. I was raised in a blue collar household, where I was taught a man’s worth is measured by what he can make, fix, or build. And I learned how to build things, fix things, operate machine tools. Sadly, I didn’t instill those values into my kids. But I will teach my grandchildren these things. They are gonna need it.
Love to hear it! Yes I'm definitely not as handy as I should be either but I 100% see the value in it.
Most companies will see AI as a way to cut jobs and drive profits. But I want to see something else.
In Range, David Epstein shows how chess changed once machines entered the game. At first, they crushed humans. Then came “centaur” chess — human + machine together — which turned out to be the strongest form of play. The machine handled calculation; the human brought strategy, creativity, intuition.
I think, that’s the real possibility of AI: to strip away the drudgery and let us focus on art, depth, and culture.
Not less humanity, but more of it.
Absolutely agree, what a wonderful world it could be if AI allowed us to only focus on creative work!
All my life I’ve been hearing that about different waves of tech and automation. It never ever happens.
I have doubts AI will be working that way anytime soon. Every AI company is striving to make it a replacement for humans and wait until it starts trying to sell you things.
>School taught us to chase prestige, follow templates, want what everyone wanted. It never taught us to understand our own wiring. What energises versus drains us. How we actually work versus how we think we should work.
I feel this one. It's not just school though. It's a failure of parents and mentors, to pay a keen eye and guiding hand to their charges. That's the duty of elders.
Making the pivot is the difficult bit. Trying to throw yourself into the grinder of applications all over again, trying to explain even to blue collar interviewers the difficult, and social incorrect, articulation of why it is you want to switch trades, and to theirs in particular.
Yes you're right. It's not only the education system, but also the outdated views and a lack of awareness from older generations.
My first 6-figure year was a self-employed service provider (a hairstylist to be exact)…so when I transitioned to corporate, I owned all those transferable skills and achieved 6-figures there too. No coincidence and trade schools still matter.
That's so cool! Thanks for sharing :))
Matt thank you very much for this series of articles. You perfectly described a messy situation that is ongoing not only in the US but around the world.
The path that was paved and sold to people between 40-20 was a model that only worked for people in their 50-60.
And today many are still following this way trying to outplay the system. Unfortunately and like many pointed out. We’ve been sold universities and white collar jobs as the graal.
Today I’m at this crossroads and I have no issue turning my back on those jobs.
Glad that you liked them!
What is the next step for you?