Top all-time · #12852
David Deming
Personal blog · forklightning.substack.comeconomicsdata
David Deming writes Forked Lightning, a personal blog at forklightning.substack.com about economics and data. Since 2023, 6 different Hacker News readers have linked it 9 times, most often “The Past, Present, and Future of Office Work”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-09-08, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (1) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link David Deming's Substack posts on economics, including the effects of automation on jobs. The one comment cites US workforce data on secretaries and typists to support its own point about AI and labour.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 1 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
News and opinion. Education and economics. Let's fork some lightning.
Most-linked posts?
- The Past, Present, and Future of Office Work2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-10-25
- People Use ChatGPT2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-09-17
What Hacker News says?
"I doubt many secretaries were replaced by postgres." The maximal relative share of typists, secretaries, admin assistants et al. in the US workforce was 4% and this apogee was reached in 1980 after ~ 100 years of sustained growth. In 1980, the curve bent and started declining as systematically as it used to rise. Now it is less than half of that. So are other office roles. https://forklightning.substack.com/p/the-p…
Comment linking /p/the-past-present-and-future-of-office
on “The Economics of Recursive Self-Improvement [pdf]”Submitted People Use ChatGPT as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Three Eras of Undergraduate Education as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Past, Present, and Future of Office Work as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted A data-driven case that AI has already changed the U.S. labor market as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Efficient social learning is the human advantage over AI by Devid Deming as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted How People Use ChatGPT as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Past, Present, and Future of Office Work as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Future of Highly Selective College Admissions as a story · 1 points
HN discussion