I saw this post that said Amazon plans to replace 600,000 workers with robots.

 

The response?

“We’ve got to fight back.”

Let me say something that might irritate both sides:

You can’t fight back against technology.

You never could.

And you never will.

History Doesn’t Care About Your Slogans

We tried this before.

We tried it with the printing press.
We tried it with industrial looms.
We tried it with tractors.
We tried it with assembly lines.
We tried it with computers.

The Luddites literally smashed machines in the 1800s to stop automation.

Spoiler alert:
The machines won.

Technology moves forward because it solves problems:

• Faster
• Cheaper
• More consistently
• At scale

Companies don’t automate because they’re evil villains twirling mustaches.

They automate because:

• Competition is brutal.
• Margins matter.
• Consumers demand speed and lower prices.
• Investors demand growth.

You can dislike that reality.

But pretending you can “fight back” against it is fantasy.

The Real Question Isn’t Robots. It’s Responsibility.

Now here’s where it gets serious.

The concern about families losing income?
That’s legitimate.

The anxiety?
Real.

The disruption?
Absolutely happening.

But outrage is not a strategy.

If automation is accelerating — and it is — then the adult conversation sounds like this:

• How do we reskill people faster than jobs disappear?
• How do we modernize education so it isn’t preparing kids for 1998?
• How do businesses invest in workforce transition instead of dumping people?
• How does government incentivize adaptation instead of protecting stagnation?
• How do workers take ownership of continuous learning?

Notice something?

That’s shared accountability.

Not slogans.
Not “fight back.”
Not pretending we can freeze time.

This Is the Same Mistake We Make in Cybersecurity

You know what this reminds me of?

Security.

We can’t “fight back” against the existence of the internet.
We can’t fight back against cloud adoption.
We can’t fight back against AI.

We can prepare.
We can build resilience.
We can design better systems.
We can hold people accountable.

But we can’t rewind progress.

Trying to stop technological momentum is like trying to stop the ocean with a picket sign.

It feels righteous.

It accomplishes nothing.

The Hard Truth

Some jobs will disappear.

That’s not cruelty.
That’s economic evolution.

But new jobs will emerge too.
They always do.

The problem is the transition gap.

That gap is where pain lives.

And that gap is where leadership matters.

If corporations automate purely for shareholder return with zero transition strategy — that’s irresponsible.

If government reacts only with outrage instead of structural workforce reform — that’s irresponsible.

If workers assume their job will remain unchanged forever — that’s naive.

Nobody is innocent here.

What Serious Solutions Actually Look Like

Serious problem. Serious solutions.

That means:

• Lifelong learning becomes normal, not optional.
• Companies invest in retraining before layoffs.
• Policy supports mobility, entrepreneurship, and new industry growth.
• Individuals stop pretending stability is guaranteed.

It’s not sexy.

It doesn’t trend on social media.

It requires humility, discipline, and cooperation between groups that don’t trust each other.

But that’s adulthood.

You Can’t Stop the Wave

Technology is not the enemy.

Irresponsibility is.

Fear is.

Short-term thinking is.

If automation is accelerating — and it is — the solution isn’t rage.

It’s preparation.

It’s adaptability.

It’s shared accountability.

You can’t fight back against technology.

But you can prepare people for it.

And that’s a fight worth having.

— Evan