該操心機器人搶走子女的飯碗嗎
I once met a consultant whose job was to find places for affluent children in the best nurseries and schools.
我曾見過一名諮詢師，她的工作是爲有錢人家的孩子找到一流幼兒園和學校的入學名額。
One client on her list had mapped out his son’s life with precision.
在她的名單上有一名客戶，已經爲他兒子的人生做好了精密規劃。
The boy would attend Cambridge university before embarking on a career in investment banking at Deutsche Bank.
這名男孩將入讀劍橋大學，然後在德意志銀行開始他的投行職業生涯。
The child was six months old.
這個孩子當時才6個月大。
The father’s hothouse ambition seemed absurd when I first heard about it.
頭一回聽說，覺得這位父親的溫室培養野心似乎很荒謬。
Who looks at their baby’s chubby face, hears their gurgling laughter and thinks nascent spreadsheet monkey? A year on, it seems even more ludicrous.
誰會看着他們小寶寶胖乎乎的臉蛋兒，聽着他們咯咯的笑聲，心裏想着這是未來的Excel狗？一年過去了，這事看起來更可笑了。
Deutsche, after all, is cutting 9,000 jobs.
畢竟，德意志銀行正裁員9000個職位。
Yet, I confess to premature thoughts about my own son’s future career.
然而，我承認對我兒子未來的職業也有開始得過早的想法。
When he started school this term I experienced a frisson of panic as he set his Start-rite feet on the institutional conveyor belt.
他從本學期開始入學，當他穿着童鞋的雙腳踏上教育機器的傳送帶，我曾因恐慌而顫抖。
My job is to write about work and careers, and I am assailed by daily predictions of widespread automation and mass unemployment.
我的工作是撰寫關於工作和職業的文章，每一天都被自動化普及和大規模失業的預言而困擾。
I find myself wondering how best to prepare a child for the future.
我發現自已一直在思考幫孩子爲未來做準備的最好方法。
There must be a sunnier path to pursue than stockpiling tinned foods and signing up for survival courses?
一定可以找到比囤積罐頭食品和報求生課程更光明的道路吧？
Most mothers and fathers start from their own experiences — professions and trades run in families.
大多數父母都從自己的經驗出發——家族行當和生意。
A study by Facebook this year found people within a family are proportionally more likely to choose the same occupation.
Facebook今年的一項研究發現同一家族中的人選擇同樣職業的比例更高。
Yet the research also found that while a son who has a father in the military is five times more likely to enter the military, just one in four sons of a military professional does so.
然而該研究也發現雖然父親當兵則兒子當兵的可能性會增加5倍，但軍事人員的兒子中只有四分之一會從軍。
In other words, most children strike their own path.
換句話說，大多數孩子走出了自己的路。
This is good news for my son.
這對我的兒子來說是個好消息。
I love journalism, but I would not encourage him into an industry convulsed by existential anguish, frequently described as being in terminal decline as advertising evaporates.
我熱愛新聞業，但我不會鼓勵他進入一個因生存痛苦而痙攣、因廣告業消失而經常被描述爲正在經歷永久衰退的行業。
Who knows if humans will be journalists in 20 years? Automation is displacing jobs in fields from manufacturing to law firms to banks.
誰知道20年後是否還有人類新聞記者？自動化正在取代從製造業到律師事務所和銀行這些行業的工作。
My trade could well be next.
我的職業也許就是下一個被取代的。
I am hardly alone in worrying about my child following in my footsteps.
擔心子女會走家長老路的人絕不止我一個。
Nick Clegg, the former UK deputy prime minister, told an interviewer: The first, most visceral instinct you have as a parent is you want to protect your children and politics is a very rough business you know.
英國前副首相尼克.克萊格(Nick Clegg)在一次採訪中說：作爲家長的第一個最內在的本能是想要保護你的孩子，而你知道，政治是一個非常艱苦的行業。
Accountants, shop assistants and doctors would say the same thing.
會計師、營業員和醫生都會說同樣的話。
In any case, most children would rather die — to quote teenagers the world over — than be like their mother or father.
無論如何，大多數孩子都寧死（用青少年的話來說就是世界末日）不與父親或母親一樣。
Besides encouraging or discouraging them into their own lines of work, how else should parents prepare children for employment? Teachers and businesses urge young people to future-proof themselves by studying science, technology, engineering or maths.
除了鼓勵或阻止他們進入自己的行業，家長們還能如何幫助子女做好就業準備呢？教師和企業敦促年輕人學好科學、技術、工程或數學來保障自己的未來。
Toy manufacturers and entrepreneurs have picked up on the stem trend.
玩具製造商和企業家們已經搭上這股主流之風。
Christmas stockings will be stuffed with toys marketed on a promise of turning little Poppy or Johnny into the next Mark Zuckerberg.
聖誕襪裏將會塞滿那些被宣傳爲可以把小波比(Poppy)或者小強尼(Jonny)培養成下一個馬克.扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)的禮物。
But I am not convinced everyone can or should be a coder.
但我不相信每個人都能或者都應該成爲程序員。
As Martin Ford, author of The Rise of the Robots, pointed out, routine software development is being automated everywhere.
正如《機器人的崛起》(The Rise of the Robots)一書的作者馬丁.福特(Martin Ford)指出的，常規軟件的開發到處都在實現自動化。
Perhaps parents should be directed instead.
也許反而是家長們應該接受引導。
Like Chris Puckett and his parents.
正如克里斯.帕克特((Chris Puckett)和他的父母。
This year I met Mr Puckett, who has made a fantastic career and vast amounts of money as an esports commentator, hosting competitive video gaming at live events and on screen.
今年我見過帕克特，他作爲電子競技評論員，在現場和在電視上主持視頻競技遊戲，從事着一份絕佳的職業，收入也絕佳。
His father is a paper salesman, his mother, a receptionist at the local church.
他的父親是紙業推銷員，母親是當地教會的接待員。
They worried about his decision to pack in his degree to pursue what seemed to them a flaky career.
他們曾爲帕克特決定放棄學位而從事在他們看來不靠譜的職業而擔心。
To allay their fears, Mr Puckett invited his parents to tournaments.
爲了消除他們的恐慌，帕克特邀請父母觀看了比賽。
Now they are his biggest cheerleaders.
現在，他們是他最鐵桿的啦啦隊員。
Some take it further than the Pucketts.
還有些人比帕克特更進一步。
Marc Freedman, founder of a social enterprise that advocates second careers in later working life, reports growing numbers of parents following their children into their chosen careers.
倡導人們在職業生涯後期開展第二職業的社交企業創始人馬克.弗裏德曼(Marc Freedman)表示，越來越多的家長跟隨子女進入他們選的職業。
Amid the gloom about the future of work, I found this cheering.
在有關職業未來的悲觀氣氛之中，我發現了值得歡呼的地方。
If, to mangle LP Hartley’s quote, the future is a foreign country — they do things differently there, then maybe future generations are our best guide.
篡改一下作家哈特利(LP Hartley)的名言，如果未來是一個異域國度——他們那裏的做事方法不同——那麼也許未來一代是我們最好的嚮導。
So, with that in mind, I pledge to support my son in his ambition to be a space policeman.
所以考慮到這一點，我發誓要支持我兒子做太空警察的雄心。
Who knows, perhaps I will follow him?
誰知道呢，或許我還會跟隨他的腳步呢？
