From the Brickyard | Subject: When jobs die (and what they teach us)
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Ever think about all the jobs that just…vanished?
It’s wild when you start digging.
- In 1900, there were over 200,000 blacksmiths in the U.S. By 1930, most were gone—horses gave way to horsepower.
- Elevator operators used to be a full-time gig. Today? The job’s been replaced by two buttons: ▲ and ▼.
- Switchboard operators once connected every phone call by hand. By the 1980s, computers took over.
- The milkman—gone by the 1970s, a casualty of grocery stores and refrigerators.
- Video-store clerks ruled the Friday night ritual… until Netflix mailed its first DVD.
- Travel agents, newspaper printers, photo developers, taxi drivers—all disrupted by technology in one way or another.
It’s kind of amazing—and kind of scary.
Every generation has jobs that seem untouchable…until they aren’t.
AI, automation, DeFi—they’re not the end.
They’re the next wave.
The real question isn’t “Will my job survive?”
It’s “Will I?”
Because if you can learn, adapt, and create value in new ways, you’ll always have work.
Maybe not the same job, but the same mission: to build, to serve, to grow.
When jobs die, the resourceful don’t panic.
We go to work.
Be curious. Stay skilled. Keep adapting.
Because the world doesn’t pay you for what was—it pays you for what’s next.
Brick by brick.
-Brickwall